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Joe Schmidt is fighting an uphill battle to make the Wallabies competitive due to a lack of quality at his disposal – with his backline a particular weak point.
That’s the verdict of one of his former players for Ireland and Leinster, the Kiwi-born Isaac Boss.
Boss, who was capped 22 times for Ireland and played Super Rugby for the Chiefs and Hurricanes as well as more than 100 games for both Ulster and Leinster, gave an insight into playing for Schmidt on Sky’s The Breakdown this week.
The Wallabies fell to No.10 on the world rankings last weekend after their fightback fell just short in a 31-28 loss to the All Blacks in Sydney.
Schmidt has won four and lost four of his first eight Tests, and after conceding a record pumping against Argentina his Wallabies were in disarray early in Saturday’s game before a strong second-half effort.
“He is analytical and he’s often… I haven’t seen him be wrong,” said Boss.
“He’s got a very good knowledge of the game, a very good vision of the game. He can see the cause and effect of everything that happens. He knows where players are going to be.
“If you do your job, there’s a certain amount of clarity in that for players. They know why they’re doing a role and what’s going to create the next phase.
“He has got a harsh demeanour as well. A lot of times guys are on tenterhooks around him.
“So he’s a bit of a smiling assassin.”
He gave an example of Schmidt being impatient with errors at training.
“He’s subbed somebody in to do a lineout move. And then they stuffed it up and then he’s subbed them straight back out.
“You’ve got to know your role (or) he does come down on players.
“He gives players clarity. He gives them knowledge. You can give them all that, but I just think he doesn’t have the cattle at the moment.”
“Now the forwards, absolutely spectacular. I think they’ve got a great forward pack on the verge of world-class, but they don’t have the backs to match.
“He’s always had teams that have had very good tens that can run games. I’m surprised he didn’t change [Noah] Lolesio earlier. You look at [Andrew] Kellaway, you look at [Tom] Wright, they were all very, very poor in defence.”
Former All Black Mils Muliaina said he felt Schmidt and his team would get a boost from how they ended the Sydney Test.
“The Wallabies will take more out of that game in terms of the confidence, because you fix the start and you’re away. And perhaps for them, it’s a mental thing,” Muliaina said.
“They were too loose. You know, they didn’t want to get loose with the All Blacks because you hand over sort of turnovers and they’ll punish you. And that’s what they did.
“The line speed was ineffective from the Wallabies. And I think Joe Schmidt breaks that down, it might be a bit of attitude.
“And that’s where I think the Wallabies are probably going to come in with a bit more confidence because they know, ‘hey, we fixed the start and we can take this team right through toward perhaps winning the game.”
