Schmidt proving Wallabies legends wrong
Never mind Harry Potter. It’s Joe Schmidt who’s beginning to cast the spells that Australian rugby needed.
Even David Campese thinks so.
In the space of just over a month, the great goose-stepper ‘Campo’ himself has been miraculously transformed from non-believer, having criticised Rugby Australia for appointing a “second-best” New Zealand coach who “hasn’t won anything”, to swooning acolyte.
The sparkle with which Schmidt’s team swept to wins at Twickenham and Cardiff persuaded one of the architects of the great 1984 ‘grand slammers’ to enthuse graciously this week: “He’s proving me wrong again. He seems to be doing a great job…”
When Campese’s condemnation-turned-praise was put to Schmidt in Edinburgh, he just delivered that folksy smile and suggested: “I don’t know what his words were the people I have to win over are the players in front of me.”
And therein lies the heart of the Schmidt project.
It’s about winning the hearts and minds of his Wallabies, making them trust in his trust, and letting his microscopic attention to detail start to work the wonders for them that once gifted Ireland a grand slam and three Six Nations titles.
A man who hasn’t won anything? Hardly, Campo.
But Schmidt is playing down the hype of two excellent performances in Britain – the first time they’ve scored 40-plus points in back-to-back Tests for 13 years – with typical calm.
He emphasises his exciting Wallabies are still a work in progress, with Potter the 18th debutant in the gold shirt in 2024. He’s learning more about his charges, match by match.
“If the players have confidence in what we’re doing with the key behaviours we’re driving and the strategy we’re trying to develop, then hopefully other people, externally, will develop confidence in it too,” says Schmidt.
“Because they’ll see players playing with confidence and a know-how that gives them the ability to stress teams and at the same time to remain fairly solid defensively.
“I know people would have been disappointed with the Rugby Championship, winning one of six games, but, gee, you were playing some of the best teams in the world.
“But I felt like we were making progress through that competition, even while that wasn’t enough to beat the All Blacks at the end of TRC.
“It’s been great having a little bit more experience back in the likes of Will Skelton and Samu Kerevi, briefly, but also, the vast majority of the guys we’ve extended the opportunity to have really stepped up and given it everything.”
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But now comes the acid test of that progress.
A potentially wet and windy Murrayfield against a well-rested bunch that Schmidt reckons is the best Scottish outfit he’s ever seen? Off the back of chaotic preparation because of the “Arctic blast” and having lost a key man, hooker Matt Faessler, to injury on the eve of the match?
It’s a Test – and, with it, a grand slam dream – which looks there to be lost.
While the excitement of 13 flair-filled tries in two Tests has renewed the feelgood rebuild of the Wallabies after the horror show under Eddie Jones, there are still many question marks over a defence that’s conceded seven tries in two matches and a scrum which struggled against Wales.
But what an opportunity lies there too for a team which clearly adores working under Schmidt.
Potter himself was asked if he now understood why Schmidt’s old Irish charges used to think that Joe saw everything even when he couldn’t possibly have.
Yes, being guided by a coach with eyes in the back of his head. “I’ve heard that description as well,” grinned Potter.
