This is me, an Irishman from Dublin, recently relocated to Perth giving his opinion on how Joe Schmidt and his Wallabies are faring.
As an Irishman, I’m in a unique position to offer a little insight into Schmidt’s Wallabies team. After all, I witnessed his work first hand during his time at Leinster, which included two European Champions Cups, a Pro14 league win (now the URC) and a European Challenge Cup win, formerly known as the Amlin Challenge Cup.
Leinster’s trophy cabinet and rave reviews from players eventually caught the IRFU’s eye after the departure of Declan Kidney.
Kidney was a renowned manager in Ireland, having led Munster to a European Cup, but he was an old-school coach, going by feel and trusting his gut.
By the time Ireland recorded their first-ever defeat to Italy, it was more than apparent that Ireland’s playing group were hungry for more detail and direction. The overall game’s journey and progression into professionalism raised the bar across the board and Ireland needed to evolve with the times.
Schmidt’s reputation preceded him. He was at the helm of Ireland’s most successful provincial team and received rave reviews from the Irish internationals within the group. Johnny Sexton only recently reinforced his opinion that the Kiwi coach was a “genius” during his recent around the world in 80 days press tour following the launch of his book.
Video analysis, flexibility in creating specific shapes and moves to expose opposition weaknesses and a play-by-play for each and every player were nuggets that came to the fore when Leinster players spoke of their head coach.
Worth noting that current Reds coach Les Kiss took charge of Ireland in an interim capacity, but was also one of the main competitors for the top job in 2013. Ewen McKenzie’s name was also in the mix.
Schmidt turned Ireland into a professional outfit, raising standards, instilling a work ethic and level of preparation into players who until now played purely off talent, like an invitational side who happened to gather ten times a year.
There were cycles within Schmidt’s tenure. Championships, embarrassing quarter-final exits, a Grand Slam, historic days at Soldier Field, and titanic away wins.
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt. (Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)
In the context of the Wallabies, looking ahead to the November internationals, an important element of his tenure in Ireland was how it started.
An opening win at Aviva Stadium over Samoa, blooding the likes of Dave Kearney, future Lion Jack McGrath and placing a huge amount of faith in previously capped but international newbies Chris Henry and Devin Toner. Schmidt had a style of play and picked players whose impact could be quantified and measured, and Toner is the prime example of this.
Relatively unheralded at club level, Schmidt turned Toner into a fully fledged Irish international. If you don’t believe me, simply look up one of Murray Kinsella’s incredible articles tracking Irish players’ ruck involvements on both sides of the ball.
Schmidt’s arrival in the top job even raised the bar for those covering him and inspired a new class of journalist in Ireland.
“This city deserves a better class of criminal, and I’m gonna give it to them.”
A pretty limp defeat to Australia followed, but Schmidt’s first block of games in November culminated in an agonisingly close defeat to New Zealand. Ryan Crotty broke Irish hearts with their length of the field try that only that All Blacks team could score.
The big difference between Schmidt’s start with Ireland and Australia is that Irish team had stars ready to explode. O’Connell, Peter O’Mahony, Healy, O’Driscoll, Kearney: players who individually were some of the best in their position, ready to combine as a team.
Compared to coming after a dumpster fire of a year under Eddie O’Sullivan, Schmidt has a much bigger job on his hands with this current crop of Wallabies.
Joseph Suaalii is the Wallabies much-hyped new recruit (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
The November internationals are looming large on the calendar and I’m not sure Will Skelton, Samu Kerevi and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii’s arrivals will bring wins right away but if they’re to make any meaningful impact during the Lions tour, Schmidt and co. need to see them tested against top-tier opposition.
Sean McVay, Los Angeles Rams’ head coach, came out to the media last week and said their star receiver was getting one more week off in his return from injury.
It’s not about a return to play, it’s about a return to performance, and I think that’s what this Wallabies team need to be focused on.
It’s textbook Joe Schmidt. He’ll have three or four goals he wants to hit during each game. I’d wager the word ‘win’ is used sparingly. Instead, I can see them focusing on their front row’s performance against Northern Hemisphere props.
How do they scrummage with different second row pairings? Rob Valetini, Fraser McReight and Harry Wilson are good backrow combination; can they be great?
It could potentially be a long trip away from home for the Wallabies. Schmidt and his coaching team will keep it simple and break down their plan into bitesize chunks for this group of players in order to keep them onside and performing right up until the final week.
Finally, I expect to see a few elevations from the traveling Australia A side. It’s going to be an attritional tour and I think having a whole other squad on hand to bring in is a great move by Rugby Australia. Out of the touring A side, who would you like to see join the national squad?