Schmidt hopes Wallabies side will keep the Lions 'honest' in opening Test clash
KEEPING LIONS HONEST: Australian Head Coach Joe Schmidt hopes his Wallabies side will keep the Lions 'honest' in the first Test clash. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Did Joe Schmidt really say he hoped his Australia side would “at least keep the Lions honest”?
While the Australian rugby public do not seem to have a complete handle on their Wallabies head coach, seasoned Joe watchers in Ireland will know that the disrespectful moniker “Sleepy Joe” handed to him by an Aussie headline writer could not be further from the truth.
Australia may be underdogs in this upcoming three Test series with the British & Irish Lions, starting at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday, but whatever about the quality of the players at his disposal, the Wallabies’ secret weapon is undoubtedly Schmidt himself.
Even more so now that he has lost three of his key frontline players to injury in fly-half Noah Lolesio, lock Will Skelton and flanker Rob “Bobby V” Valentini.
Schmidt named his team on Thursday for the first Test against the British & Irish Lions, bad luck forcing him to hand a first start at number 10 to 22-year-old playmaker Tom Lynagh, son of Australian great Michael Lynagh in just his fourth Test and award an international debut to flanker Nick Champion de Crespigny.
Was he rattled? Of course not. Here was a man who took down the All Blacks in Chicago in 2016, won a series against a much better Wallabies side than he is in charge of currently two years later and then as New Zealand attack coach unpicked the Irish with some choice starter plays in a World Cup quarter-final two years ago.
“I'd be pretty pragmatic about that (underdog tag) and I'd hope that the team are as well,” he said on Thursday.
“We try not to base our whole game around any individual that we share the load. We share the excitement of the opportunity and I think those things are still shared across the group, and they're excited about the opportunity. I'd like to think that we can still go out, probably sharing Tom Lynagh's quiet confidence that we can put a game together that at least can keep the British and Irish Lions pretty honest on the day.”
If Schmidt can convince the Lions his ambition is to keep Andy Farrell’s team “pretty honest” at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday then the tourists are walking into one hell of an ambush. But of course Farrell and a Lions coaching ticket including defence coach Simon Easterby, attack coach Andrew Goodman and kicking coach Johnny Sexton knows Schmidt’s coaching style only too well.
Which makes this series all the more intriguing.
Schmidt was asked how hard it was to stay a step in front of the opposition whena rival coaching staff knew him so well.
“I'm not sure I ever got ahead in the first place,” he said. “I've got massive respect for those guys. They're a super coaching crew.
“Andrew Goodman, I brought him across to Leinster and he already had a really good head for the game. Simon Easterby I worked with for so long, Faz obviously. Even in terms of analytics, Vinnie Hammond, he's a superb analyst. I've no doubt he's analysed anything that we've done so far.
“Across the board, they've got a great coaching crew. I had a really good chat with Richard Wigglesworth, who I've never worked with after we played England last year. Again, he just seemed to have a really good handle on the game and unpicked us pretty well.
“I've no doubt that they will have their players really well prepared - and that's part of the challenge. What I can't control, I wouldn't try to overly focus on.
“I think for us, we've had one Test match, we've got 15 this year. We go from the Lions test, six days later we leave to play a test on the Highveld in Joburg. We thought we'd ease our way into the year – and that's the magnitude of it really. I'm looking forward to seeing those guys and catching up with them.”
With Schmidt involved one wonders who is going to buy the drinks when the dust settles on this Test series.
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