The ‘lethal’ Joe Schmidt verdict on Ireland, and why he won’t be ‘a million miles away’ if the Wallabies ‘want a hand’ in the future
Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt, inset, has been talking about his team's July duel with the rejuvenated Ireland
Former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt is on full alert with the Wallabies following Andy Farrell’s recent rejuvenation of his old team.
Schmidt was boss of this year’s Triple Crown winners from 2013 through to 2019, working with Farrell as his assistant for this last three years.
He has since assisted the All Blacks before taking over the Wallabies following the exit of Eddie Jones and is now poised to step away from the post in July, but only after taking on Ireland, France and Italy on successive Saturdays in the new Nations Championship.
Les Kiss, another of his former Irish assistants, has already been lined up to take over the Wallabies job, but Schmidt is looking to get one back on his former charges before his Australian tenure ends.
“Belligerent defensively…”
Schmidt has twice lucked out, the Wallabies losing in Dublin by three points in 204 and then getting blown away by a 27-point margin last November. The Irish have since gone on to finish second in the latest Six Nations despite a poor start and it has the Australia boss on edge looking ahead to the July 4 fixture in Sydney.
Appearing on Australian TV over the weekend ahead of his final block of matches in charge, Schmidt said: “I’m massively looking forward to it. They finished the Six Nations on a real upswing. They had a third of the time in the 22 than Scotland had and beat them by twice as many points.
“They are lethal attacking wise and they were belligerent defensively and so we know the level that they can get to and albeit that they started poorly in the Six Nations, the way they came back through it.
“At the same time, we’ll be fresher, we’ll be ready to go by the time that Test match occurs. I’d love to get a similar sort of Allianz Stadium that we had last time here. It was just bubbling, and we’d love that to happen again, full stadium and it does lift the players.”
Reflecting on how high scoring the 2026 Six Nations was, a tournament that culminated in France beating England 48-46 with a last-gasp penalty to become champions after Ireland had gone top of the table with their 43-21 dismissal of Scotland, Schmidt agreed that the tournament was less of an attritional aerial kicking type of game and focused more on skill on speed.
“That was part of it, definitely good. But the other part of it was on the back of those kick battles it was who goes quick from those and if you something from a kick going forward, how quickly you can move that or punch through that.
“You only have to look at the France-England game. A lot of those tries, both sides of the ball, were scored off kicks through rather than kicks over and those kicks through, there were pretty exceptional guys collecting them like (Louis) Bielle-Biarrey. That accounted for at least four or five of those tries in that game.
“The kicking game is still really important, but I do think the execution, the number of phases in that Ireland-Scotland game, were huge. Up to 17, 18, 19 phases at times. With that number of possessions, it’s hard to defend for that long. Some of it was attritional and some of it was artistical almost, particularly with some of those really good athletes finishing tries.”
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Switching to his impending departure from the Wallabies, Schmidt explained the transition that will happen with Reds boss Kiss set to take sole charge for the two-Test August series versus Japan. “I talked to Les Kiss last night, we exchanged messages this morning. There is a constant conversation happening between us, particularly around who is playing well, what we are looking for.
“But in the end, those three Test matches (in July) I will still have the lead in. That will be Les’ opportunity to see, every team has their own lexicon. We have a language that we use, we have expectations that we set, and we have a game model that we play to.
“And so it will be Les’ opportunity. He’s already spent quite a bit of time in the Wallabies environment, both when we played at home last year and then on the spring tour. He was in during the England and the Ireland weeks, so Les is already well briefed on how we structure our week and how we try to build towards the game.
“And then he will bring his own ingredients into the Japanese tests that follow and there is a couple of week’s hiatus there so he’ll have the opportunity just to take stock and then build his way into those two Tests and he is more likely to shift direction than change direction. It’s not likely to be big shifts immediately. He’ll work his way to any change in how the game is played.”
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The parting of the ways between Schmidt and Rugby Australia is amicable and the Kiwi went on to suggest be won’t be against taking a call from Kiss if a handed is needed heading into 2027 and Rugby World Cup year. “I’m comfortable with the conversations. For me, I have got some other responsibilities and priorities and how they may dovetail in the future.
“The one thing I do know is that the first time I retired was in 2018, announced a retirement as in 2018, and I stayed in the seat for another year (with Ireland) and I just don’t think I was as effective as I had been prior to that.
“I’m better to get right out of the way and let Les really lead that window through to the end of the year and if Les wants a hand on the back of that, you know, we coached together over 10 years ago and have been friends since so it’s not like I’d be a million miles away.”
