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Ireland legend Johnny Sexton says he’s seen enough to believe “genius” Joe Schmidt can turn around the Wallabies and make them a competitive foe for the Lions, starting with their Spring Tour Tests in Europe.
Sexton, who won Six Nations titles under Schmidt with the Irish, was doing the podcast rounds this week to promote his autobiography Obsessed.
On The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast Sexton was asked if the Wallabies coach still had the necessary X-factor as a national coach.
It was put to Sexton that Schmidt’s edge had been in analysis and finding a competitive advantage and that other nations might have caught up due to an improvement in analysis.
“I still see it, though,” said Sexton, while referencing a moment in the recent Bledisloe Cup game where a Wallabies attacking move just came to grief when Jake Gordon knocked on with the try line under him.
“Like, you saw Australia, then they only didn’t score because a player just knocked it on at the very end. But they break New Zealand open with that move where the nine kind of breaks left… [Schmidt] scouted that.
“That’s him. That’s him just doing that. It sounds like he still has that intelligence and brains and… But it’ll take time. He’s only had a few weeks with them, a few games, and obviously they had a sort of bad half against Argentina. But other than that, they’ve been really competitive, I would say.”
Sexton added he’d seen “improvements in the games. Joe will improve every team he goes into.
“Listen to the New Zealand guys talking about him. They loved him, the years he worked there. And he’s been successful everywhere he’s gone, really.
(Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
“I know he didn’t win a World Cup in New Zealand as an assistant coach, but they came pretty close. Sometimes you need a little bit of luck.”
On the BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly podcast, Sexton said Schmidt continued to have an impact on him even after they stopped working together.
“I’ve had some amazing coaches, and I’m so lucky to have them because like some guys go through their career and they’ve got one or two coaches and they’re only okay,” Sexton said.
“I remember playing games at the end of my career with Joe Schmidt’s [voice] still in my ear, in a good way. Because he was a genius. And he influenced me so much in that period of my career, I worked with him from 2011 to 2018 so the majority of my career was with Joe in one way.”
(Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)
Sexton said he never thought anyone would get close to Schmidt as a coach, but believed the Kiwi’s former assistant and successor as Ireland coach Andy Farrell has done that.
“He does it all. He coaches attack and defence, like brilliantly, like the best, the best of the best. Good man manager, can motivate a team.”
The pair will come face to face when the Lions arrive Down Under next year.
“It’s a year out so [the Wallabies] have got time. I think it’ll be a great tour. I think it’s a great narrative, isn’t it? Joe against Andy again, having worked so closely together and them still having a very good relationship and would still be in contact with each other.
“It’ll be interesting. I wonder if it’ll go down like last time when [Warren] Gatland went to New Zealand and there was all this, you know, firing back and forth between the coaches. But I don’t think it will. Faz and Joe would be very respectful, I’d say.”
