Joe Schmidt is promoting his new book, Ordinary Joe, and the Grand Slam winner has been asked about Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding.
The pair were acquitted of all charges in the Belfast rape trial last year, but were sacked by Ulster and the IRFU amid controversy over What's App messages that emerged during the proceedings.
Former Irish rugby coach Schmidt conducted an interview with BBC Radio Ulster Sportsround Extra Time.
He was asked if the chapter would be ever fully closed when it came to the controversy:
'It is impossible for me to predict that landscape. It's very difficult to know whether there will be a degree of forgiveness over a period of time. Being found not guilty doesn't necessarily in some people's eyes excuse behaviour. That's a difficult thing to overcome.
"But, you would hope that people, we have a system where people are punished for crime and not doing a crime and you would hope at some stage, forgiveness would be part of that."
Joe Schmidt also stated that it was important to reach out to his captain, Rory Best, who received criticism for attending the trial:
"[I was worried} Because of the hashtag "not my captain". The way that he was isolated. What I tried to do was to not allow him to be completely isolated. I could see how tough it was for him."
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