Latest news with #JoeSchmidt
Times
6 hours ago
- Sport
- 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.
Daily Mail
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Australia coach takes aim at Lions duo - born in New Zealand and Australia - after former stars raised questions over their inclusions
Australia head coach Joe Schmidt has taken aim at the British and Irish Lions for their centre partnership of of Bundee Aki and Sione Tuipulotu ahead of the side's first tour game. Lions boss Andy Farrell has named his stating side for the first of the summer matches against Argentina on Friday, with four foreign-born players included in the 15 and two more in the replacements. Schmidt will lead his side against the Lions later on this summer, with the first Test to be played in July before the tour concludes in early August. The 59-year-old has named his own squad to take on Fiji, and wasted no time taking aim at a duo who were born in New Zealand and Australia respectively. The subject has been a source of controversy since Farrell named his 38-man squad, with Lions icon Willie John McBride saying the inclusions 'bothered' him, while former England scrum-half Danny Care agreed that the inclusion of foreign-born players was an eyebrow-raiser. And Schmidt has now marked himself as the leader of the criticism, highlighting the duo when he named his Australia squad on Thursday. 'A southern-hemisphere centre partnership that will be pretty formidable,' he said. 'Obviously, I coached Bundee for several years (at Ireland) and know him really well, respect him massively as a player and 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.' Lions back coach Richard Wigglesworth, however, jumped to his side's defence, insisting players aren't picked on their backgrounds, but commitment and talent. 'I don't know if they are questioning their commitment,' he said. 'Their journey and how committed they have been to their country, whether that be Scotland or Ireland, England or Wales, everyone has earned the right to pull on the Lions jersey. 'They are, to a man, incredibly proud to be here. It is not your background or how you have got here, it is what sort of player are you and what sort of man you are and we have got great men and great players.' Care had said on the BBC Rugby Union Weekly podcast: 'Both your starting wingers are going to be lads that never, ever once in their childhood or even their mid-20s dreamt of wearing a red Lions jersey. 'It is what it is, it's the rules, and why not. If you're James Lowe or you're Duhan van der Merwe or you're [Jamison] Gibson-Park, you go, "Oh, I'll play for the Lions, yeah". 'We're not going to change it, but it just doesn't… I think there's a lot of people that feel the same but can't say it.' It's not uncommon in sport for starts to feature for countries they weren't born in at international level, but qualify for through family links or how long they have lived there. That includes in the sports such as football, with the likes of Marc Guehi (Ivory Coast) and Trevoh Chalobah (Sierra Leone) in the current England set-up born elsewhere, while cricket greats such as Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen were born in South Africa but represented England.
The 42
10 hours ago
- Sport
- The 42
Lions get started in sold-out Aviva after Schmidt shows Wallabies' hand
IT WASN'T YET midday, but the three lads from Norfolk were keen to get first-hand experience of Dublin's famous pubs. They don't have the fortune to be chasing the Lions in Australia so these few days in Ireland count as their tour. It's easy to focus on the commercial aspect of the Lions. In fact, it's impossible to ignore. It's a money-making beast. Ticket prices ranging up to nearly €200 a pop for this evening's clash with Argentina [KO 8pm, TG4/Sky Sports] were steep. But they've all been snapped up. The Lions will make millions of euros from this week in Dublin. Yet for many fans, this day out will be a special occasion. Their first and maybe last chance to see the Lions in the flesh without travelling around the world. Thousands upon thousands of fans will make the long trip Down Under, but there will be plenty of Irish, English, Scottish, and Welsh supporters whose only in-person taste of it comes tonight. It is welcome that the action finally kicks off now. Lions tours involve very long run-ups. There are only so many times we can hear players and coaches talk about how special an honour it is. The real power of the Lions is when they show us exactly what it means. Andy Farrell has picked an exciting, English-influenced matchday 23 for this non-capped clash with an Argentina side that should bring huge passion on what is a big occasion for them too. Los Pumas would love the Lions to start touring Argentina at some point, but the chance to beat them in Dublin will be motivating for now. Felipe Contepomi's men were thrilling to watch last year and though they're missing some frontline players through injury and club duty, it's still a good side they've named. Despite their lack of time together in recent months, they'll hope that their cohesion proves stronger than some of the relatively fresh Lions combinations. Advertisement While Farrell is all about his side getting off to a strong start before they fly out to Australia tomorrow, he will have been keeping a close eye on the latest from Wallabies camp. Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt. Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO Joe Schmidt yesterday confirmed his 36-man squad for the Australians' single warm-up game against Fiji on 6 July. There is still scope for the former Ireland boss to make some tweaks, but his Test series team is set to come from this initial group. It was never likely that Schmidt's Wallabies group would feature big bolters for the Lions series, although he has included two uncapped players in the lightning-quick Brumbies wing Corey Toole and Western Force flanker Nick Champion de Crespigny, a Canberra native who has family roots in Normandy and spent three seasons with Castres. Schmidt did the bulk of his experimenting last year, handing out 19 Wallabies debuts in total at the same time as turning their fortunes around after the shambolic and short-lived Eddie Jones era. It seems all but certain that Schmidt's side for the Lions Tests will look similar to the teams that beat England, Scotland, and Wales last year, as well as running Ireland close in Dublin. One thing Schmidt has yet to do is confirm his Wallabies captain for the Lions series. Number eight Harry Wilson filled that role last year but reports in Australia suggest that Schmidt could back scrum-half Jake Gordon to take over as skipper now. 31-year-old Gordon was among the surprise omissions from Jones' squad for the 2023 World Cup but has become the starting number nine under Schmidt and has plenty of captaincy experience with the Waratahs. Schmidt must be relieved that superstar Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii will be ready to go for this series, having recovered from his fractured jaw. Suaalii also had a toe injury earlier this year, but he was impressive in his seven Super Rugby starts for the Waratahs, six of which were at fullback and one at outside centre. He'll be a handful for the Lions wherever he plays. The other important news for Farrell from Australia is that a bunch of the Western Force players named in Schmidt's squad will remain with their franchise in Perth to face the Lions tomorrow week in the first warm-up game on Aussie soil. The Lions training in Dublin yesterday. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO Scrum-half Nic White, second row Darcy Swain, tighthead Tom Robertson, wing Dylan Pietsch, and back row Champion de Crespigny will be with the Force to face the Lions. That means a better challenge for the Lions and game time for those players before they link up with the Wallabies. Not all the Western Force players are staying in Perth. Openside flanker Carlo Tizzano, second row Jeremy Williams, out-half Ben Donaldson, and wing Harry Potter will go straight into Wallabies camp, underlining that they're far more likely to play against Fiji and the Lions. Nonetheless, it's only right that the Force and the other Super Rugby sides should be as close to full strength as possible against the Lions, even as Schmidt keeps his key men in Wallabies camp to prepare for the Tests. Farrell and co. will soon be on Australian soil. They leave Dublin in two parties tomorrow, one flying to London and then directly to Perth, the other with a stopover in Qatar. Before they get their tour of Australia underway, the Lions will look to give the lads from Norfolk and everyone else on mini-tours to Dublin plenty to cheer about tonight. LIONS: Marcus Smith; Tommy Freeman, Sione Tuipulotu, Bundee Aki, Duhan van der Merwe; Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Finlay Bealham; Maro Itoje (captain), Tadhg Beirne; Tom Curry, Jac Morgan, Ben Earl. Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Pierre Schoeman, Tadhg Furlong, Scott Cummings, Henry Pollock, Tomos Williams, Elliot Daly, Mack Hansen. Related Reads Farrell wants late-arriving Leinster stars to feel Lions pressure Akipulotu pairing catches the eye in English-influenced Lions side ARGENTINA: Santiago Carreras; Rodrigo Isgro, Lucio Cinti, Justo Piccardo, Ignacio Mendy; Tomas Albornoz, Gonzalo García; Mayco Vivas, Julian Montoya (captain), Joel Sclavi; Franco Molina, Pedro Rubiolo; Pablo Matera, Juan Martín Gonzalez, Joaquin Oviedo. Replacements: Bautista Bernasconi, Boris Wenger, Francisco Coria Marchetti, Santiago Grondona, Joaquín Moro, Simón Benitez Cruz, Matías Moroni, Santiago Cordero. Referee: James Doleman [New Zealand].
The Independent
12 hours ago
- Sport
- The Independent
Lions break new ground in lucrative tour opener — but Argentina clash has selection significance too
Perhaps, given the composition of the squad and staff, Dublin is the only appropriate place for this British and Irish Lions summer to begin. A deep Irish brogue has been evident throughout the delivery of the tour from the moment Andy Farrell was confirmed as head coach, a record contingent of 15 familiar faces taken with him in the quadrennial assembly and much of his coaching team Dublin-drawn, too. There are heavy connections in the Wallabies camp, too, Australia head coach Joe Schmidt having laid the foundations upon which his former assistant has most impressively built. Come matchday, the Lions will be cloaked in familiar red, but even their training kits have been green in their week in the Emerald Isle. The long lineage of this touring team is still able to break new ground with Friday night's encounter with Argentina under the glass banks of the Aviva Stadium the first time the Lions have had an outing on Irish soil. Such encounters may only be an hors d'ouevre to the feast of rugby to follow once Farrell and his squad land down under, but these fixtures are commercially significant, and give those unable to travel to Australia a swim in the sea of red – provided they can stomach the prices for tickets, travel and lodgings in a city where a certain level of surging comes with the territory on rugby weekends like these. There has been an undercurrent of chitter-chatter, verging on criticism, about the heavy Irish influence in Farrell's squad, which was brushed away brusquely by assistant coach Johnny Sexton this week. 'Well, Ireland have done pretty well over the last few years, having won the [Six Nations] championship last year, the grand slam the year before, so you're probably looking over the last three years,' Sexton rather rightly said, before pointing out that their familiarity with the head coach would probably prove useful as the Lions race to get up to speed. 'They know the way Andy coaches, they know the system. It didn't surprise me because historically, let's say when there was a Welsh coach and the Welsh team did well, there were the majority of the Welsh team. I think the teams that performed the best in the Six Nations got selected.' Even with a squad selected, grumbles of a parochial and patriotic nature will continue to rumble as Farrell begins the unenviable task of narrowing down Britain and Ireland's 38 best and brightest to 23 across the seven games that precede the first Test in Brisbane on 19 July. It is much too soon for anyone, let alone the boss, to draw definitive conclusions, but those selected to take on the Pumas will want to stake an early claim in front of a capacity crowd. There will be a few more Dubliners confined to a watching brief, of course, Farrell understandably electing not to risk those involved in securing Leinster's United Rugby Championship (URC) triumph across the city at Croke Park six days ago – excepting Ronan Kelleher, required to back-up Luke Cowan-Dickie with workmate Dan Sheehan the only other hooking option in the squad. He will at least have a club and country chum for company: Tadhg Furlong's return from a calf problem is most welcome, with tighthead a developing area of slight concern after Zander Fagerson's withdrawal. 'He's fit and ready to go," Farrell said of Furlong, with the rest of his injury concerns (Huw Jones, Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan) all tracking well to be back available next week. 'He's trained well and as keen as everyone else to get the show on the road. There's always one or two bumps and bruises that you're trying to nurse – that's the nature of rugby. We're in good shape.' The absence of the Leinster lot – and Premiership finalists Finn Russell, Will Stuart and Ollie Chessum, plus otherwise-engaged Top 14 semi-finalist Blair Kinghorn – made selection relatively straightforward for this opening game, yet there is nonetheless plenty of intrigue. The deployment of Tom Curry, Jac Morgan and Ben Earl replicates a tactic successfully used by England during the Six Nations, with three openside options backed up by another in Henry Pollock to ensure a pack of jackals ready to scavenge on whatever the Lions bring down. A partnership between Bundee Aki and Sione Tuipulotu, meanwhile, could yet be revisited come the Tests, with both far more than just a crash-and-bash wrecking crew, though likely to provide plenty of front-foot ball from which the Smiths, Fin and Marcus, can play their tunes. One would not expect sweet music just yet, though. These tour curtain-raisers aren't always the easiest watches, the Lions often still fumbling and feeling their way into things as the squad settles. The encounter with Japan four years ago is perhaps only remembered for nearly costing Warren Gatland his tour captain, Alun Wyn Jones, while the heat and humidity of Hong Kong made for an uninspiring opening half-hour against the Barbarians in 2013. There is perhaps value in a first hit-out, though: the Lions forwent a fixture of this ilk in 2017 and very nearly found a jet-lagged line-up turned over by a group of Kiwi provincial part-timers. Perhaps the most apt comparison, though, is the 2005 encounter with Argentina in Cardiff – though Farrell will be hoping for rather better than a dreadful draw that set the tone for a disastrous tour. That Pumas side was far from full-strength but was captained by a certain Felipe Contepomi, now head coach, having been such a critical part of a remarkable rise over the last two decades. This is something of a homecoming for the former centre, back in a fair city where he spent six years as a Leinster player. While his squad is not at full strength – bench depth is an issue, with a few key figures involved in the Top 14 or injured – there is all sorts of talent in the starting side: Julian Montoya, Juan Martin Gonzalez, Rodrigo Isgro and Santi Carreras were all among their club's top Premiership performers last season and the classy Tomas Albornoz continues to make the No 10 shirt his own. They could well prove tricky prey.
The Independent
12 hours ago
- Sport
- The Independent
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."
