Australia coach Joe Schmidt takes sly dig at Lions with ‘southern hemisphere' centres comment
Australia head coach Joe Schmidt has taken a swipe at the British and Irish Lions by describing Bundee Aki and Sione Tuipulotu as a "southern-hemisphere centre partnership".
Aki and Tuipulotu, who were born in New Zealand and Australia respectively, form a midfield partnership for Friday's tour opener against Argentina in Dublin and Schmidt has seized the opportunity to highlight their switch of national allegiance.
Aki qualified for Ireland through residency while Tuipulotu is able to represent Scotland because of his Greenock-born grandmother.
"A southern-hemisphere centre partnership that will be pretty formidable," said Schmidt at the Wallabies squad announcement for their forthcoming match against Fiji.
"I coached Bundee for several years and know him really well and respect him massively as a player. He's a great contributor to the team environment.
"I've only had glancing conversations with Sione but again, by all accounts a champion bloke.
"You don't get to be captain of a national team without being a great bloke and really professional in those high-performance environments. They are real athletes, those two together, so that'll be really interesting."
The number of overseas-born players in Andy Farrell's 38-man squad has been a talking point ahead of the tour Down Under.
Ireland's James Lowe and Jamison Gibson-Park and Scotland's Duhan van der Merwe and Pierre Schoeman qualified for their nations through residency, while Finlay Bealham and Mack Hansen can represent Ireland through family.
Lions attack coach Richard Wigglesworth responded to Schmidt's barb by declaring everyone in the squad has earned the right to be there.
"I don't know if they are questioning their commitment. Everyone has earned the right to pull on the Lions jersey," Wigglesworth said.
"They are, to a man, incredibly proud to be here. It is not your background or how you have got here, it's what sort of player you are and what sort of man you are. We have got great men and great players."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
36 minutes ago
- Times
Joe Schmidt not just fighting to win but to save rugby union in Australia
Australian rugby is not in a good place. The Wallabies are a lowly eighth, below Scotland and Argentina, in the world rankings. They finished last in both the 2023 and 2024 Rugby Championship campaigns. In the 2023 World Cup they were eliminated at the pool stage for the first time in their history. The Green and Gold lost 40-6 to Wales. That in itself tells quite a tale. As did the decision to hire Eddie Jones. Joe Schmidt has initiated some improvement. His team did beat England and avenged themselves against Wales last autumn but they also suffered the worst defeat in their history, 67-27, at the hands of Argentina. Domestically their Super Rugby Pacific season ended in mostly premature failure. The Queensland Reds failed to make the knockout section. So too the New South Wales and Western Australian franchises. The Brumbies, from Australia Capital Territories, managed a morale-boosting quarter-final victory against the Hurricanes before the Chiefs — from New Zealand, like the Hurricanes — overwhelmed them in the semi-final. The actual tournament is struggling to retain much interest because it has become an exclusively New Zealand competition at the sharp end. It is ten years since the Wallabies won the Rugby Championship, and 11 since Michael Cheika's Waratahs beat the Crusaders in front of nearly 62,000 supporters in Sydney, the last time an Australian team won the Super Rugby title. The reflection of this in crowd sizes is glaring. The average attendance in Sydney was 16,000 this season, while it was 1,000 less in the union stronghold of Brisbane. Twenty years ago, these averages were almost double today's figures. When the Brumbies beat the Hurricanes, I was horrified with the endless rows of empty seats in Canberra. As for Western Australia, they have averaged a fraction over 6,700. Rugby league averages 21,000 per game compared with Australian Super Rugby's 12,000. Aussie Rules packs in 39,000 spectators on an average match day. Football is also on the rise. On a Sunday morning there are throngs of kids playing 'touch footie' in Sydney and plenty of supporters turn up for the city's Shute Shield, featuring the long-established union clubs. It is predominantly middle class — but that's no different to England. In some ways, the two countries have similar problems. New South Wales and Queensland continue as the nation's rugby epicentre — for fans, clubs and schools — but it struggles to make an impact in other parts of the country. Just as the Premiership has struggled to understand that outside the traditional strongholds the sport has stagnated so it has failed to thrive in Victoria and Western Australia. The failure of Melbourne to maintain a team was testament to Aussie Rules' grip over union. Whereas Aussie Rules has made dents in the union markets of Sydney, union has not been able to nationalise rugby union. Last weekend, at the Optus Stadium in Perth, where the British & Irish Lions tour to Australia kicks off for real, 31,000-plus turned up on the Saturday for North Melbourne v Fremantle Dockers, and nearly 44,000 for the next day's game, West Coast Eagles v Carlton. These are figures beyond union's dreams. Until now. The Lions begin their tour against Western Force in Perth, Western Australia, next Saturday. The legion of Lions supporters, anticipated to number about 40,000 through the tour, will pack the stands, almost certainly outnumbering the locals with their average crowd of 6,700. That life support for the union code is the Lions playing doctor and revitalising the sport's ailing body. Australia needs an end to echoing stadiums and, more than any team in the world, the Lions quartet of nations guarantees non-stop atmosphere. But what — other than to replenished coffers — are the long-term implications should the tour degenerate into a sequence of one-sided affairs before the Test series? The Wallabies' so-called 'Super' teams will be stripped of some of their Test performers. And though Schmidt does not have the strength in depth to risk all of his core players, he has made more than expected available for Western Force. On Thursday revealed that Wallabies squad members Nick Champion de Crespigny, Tom Robertson, Darcy Swain, Tom Robertson, Dylan Pietsch and Nic White would all be free to play. For the tour, this is promising news. Andy Farrell's job isn't to play the part of rugby missionary and go easy on the opposition. The Lions have hit Western Force for a century of points in the past. If they thrash them on June 28, where does that leave the already sparse loyal core of 6,700 fans? It may be pure coincidence but this week the venue for the first Lions match hosted rugby league's showpiece, the State of Origin; New South Wales versus Queensland brings the East Coast of Australia to a grinding halt. This match, the second of the three-game series, was played at the Optus Stadium in Perth a mere ten days before the Lions kick off. Queensland, having lost in Brisbane, fought back to level the series at 1-1, with the decider now set for Sydney. The marketing men couldn't be more delighted with the way the State of Origin has panned out in the distant west. It will take a stunning performance from Western Force to eclipse the 26-24 windswept Origin thriller. League has made the sort of mark in Western Australia that union can only dream of. As for the Tests, Australia have one warm-up game against Fiji before the series. The Lions have the advantage in terms of preparation and strength. Schmidt has to gamble with his stars, arguably throwing the warm-up games. Nothing but a compelling Test series stops Australia from sliding further away from its already tenuous position among the nation's winter sports. On the terraces and in the bars the tour will be a riotous carnival. The Lions' combined support base guarantees colour in abundance. On the pitch, however, Schmidt is tasked with the toughest test for Australia's coach since the game turned pro. They triumphed in 2001, two years after winning their second World Cup and two years before losing to England in the 2003 final. That was a great Aussie team and the series went dramatically down to the dying seconds. If Australia lose the series and the Lions leave a trail of hammerings in their wake, the 2027 World Cup in Australia is going to rely on tourists and ex-pats. This tour is about more than the future of the Wallabies. It is a threat to the entire code of rugby union.
BBC News
39 minutes ago
- BBC News
Monye and Fitzgerald on Rugby Union Weekly
Lions on the loose in tonight's British and Irish Lions' warm-up hit-out against Argentina, Ugo Monye and Luke Fitzgerald, veterans of the 2009 tour of South Africa , are talking about the excitement and intrigue in join rugby union correspondent Chris Jones on Rugby Union Weekly, while Lauren Jenkins from Scrum V pops in to discuss whether, with only Jac Morgan and Tomos Williams picked for the squad, the Welsh public will embrace this Lions now on BBC Sounds.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
The home of the British and Irish Lions on the BBC Sport website
You have come to the right page is where you will find all the best of BBC Sport's coverage of the Lions' tour of Australia, with the latest news, opinion, analysis and gossip from inside the team of journalists are on the ground, following the team from Dublin to Perth and beyond as they forge on towards a momental three-Test series against the will be interviews, podcasts, team news, behind-the-scenes pictures and live text coverage of every you can keep across it all. Just hit the 'follow' button on website or app to add it to your 'MySport' feed or tap the bell on the BBC Sport app to be served up alerts with all the latest.
