As Rugby Australia chiefs scratch their heads and attempt to resolve contract issues with key Wallabies, they will get a sharp reminder of the stakes involved at Murrayfield on Monday.
The Roar revealed on Wednesday that several big name stars are out of contract with RA after next year’s Lions tour and that talks on new contracts have yet to start.
This weekend Scotland will be led out by captain Sione Tuipulotu, who was allowed to leave his native Australia and will likely return down under on that Lions tour.
Wallabies halfback Nic White expected Tuipulotu, whose brother Mosese has also made the transition to a Scotland squad thanks to their grandmother, to have extra motivation against the Australians, having not been locked down for the Wallabies.
Sione Tuipulotu. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images for Scottish Rugby)
“Unfortunately, we let him get away, but he’s going to have a point to prove this weekend,” White told reporters. “He’s playing some outstanding footy and there’ll be some boys in the group that are really happy to see him doing really well.
“It’s bloody hard work stopping him isn’t it? He’s a triple threat. He’s got a low centre of gravity, very powerful, slick hands and a good kicking game as well.”
“But we’ll do the best we can to limit a guy like that. You can’t stop a guy like that – he’s just a world-class footballer.”
White started against Wales last week where the Wallabies piled on 52 points to back up their close victory over England in the first of four Tests in Europe.
The tourists are expecting a tougher assignment against Scotland, who have Lions No.10 front runner Finn Russell directing their play.
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
“They’ve got an absolute maverick of a ten that can throw the ball, whether it’s Finn Russell or [Adam] Hastings. But if it’s Finn Russell, he’s pretty special. Everyone in world rugby knows that.
“You don’t stop a guy like that. What you can do is try and limit his options and his impact on the game.
“It’s impossible to take world-class players like that out of a game. He’s just that classy.”
While the Aussies’ 2-0 start to the tour has surprised many, including plenty of their fans, White said: “No, I think it’s not surprised us.
“We were quite frustrated in the TRC [Rugby Championship] with a couple of results. We’ve been working hard and the results the last couple of weeks have been off the back of a lot of that hard work. But we fully understand we’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of us at where we want to be. We were a bee’s away from being on the wrong side of that result in England.
“We did some good things in the game [against Wales] on the weekend. There’s plenty we need to work on and we’ve been working at that. It’s good to see parts of our game starting to come together.
“We know we’re up against a different side this week. We’re going to have to be a lot better to come to Murrayfield and get a result against a Scottish side that’s really bloody good at the moment. We’re excited by that challenge, but like I said, we’re under no illusion as to the hard work that needs to go in to prepare ourselves to be able to put a performance out there that we’re happy with.”
Having suffered through the misery of the Eddie Jones World Cup year, White said the recovery was well underway thanks to Joe Schmidt.
“Joe said it right from the start: you’ve got to earn it each week and that starts today. This belief has slowly been built off the back of trust,” said White.
“It was pretty grim last year. We’ve been slowly building away at a game plan that Joe wants to play, inching closer to the finished product that we’d like to be someday down the road. We may never get there, but we aim towards it.
“With each week you see it work and you get a little bit more trust within each other, within your own abilities, within the team’s abilities, but mainly within each other around trusting each other to play the style. You’re seeing a lot of patience into our game off the back of that, looking after the ball.
“A lot of it’s come together and it’s taken time. Certainly we weren’t there through the TRC and we’re not there yet, but we’re steps closer. But Joe’s very good at reminding us we’ve still got a long way to go and will remind us again today in review.
“There’s some good things we did, but there’s still a long way to go to be at the pointy end. This is just the beginning of our journey.
“The weekend was a really good test for us. We got 19-0 up and they came back. It was going to really test our resolve and our trust to stick to the process of how we want to play the game. And we did.
“It certainly made it harder for ourselves going down to 14 [after Samu Kerevi‘s red card], but it kind of made us better. Those moments solidify that trust.
“It’s hard to earn and we’ve been earning it over a period of time. We’ve got to continue to earn it every single day and it can just as quickly go.”