'We will have to take a step up from the Lions series to beat the Springboks', says Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt

Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt says he would love to be a fly on the wall when Rassie Erasmus has his coaching meetings with innovative assistants Tony Brown and Felix Jones.

Schmidt, a New Zealander, knows former All Black Brown well, while as director of rugby at the Ireland Rugby Union, he regularly met with Munster men in Erasmus, Jones, and defence coach Jerry Flannery.

Erasmus reported to Schmidt when he coached Munster in 2016 and 2017.

“I am an admirer of Tony; he is very innovative, so are Felix and Rassie. The three of them must have some interesting coaching meetings where they come up with good ideas. If anybody has a recording of those meetings, I’d love to get them,” Schmidt laughed.

“But for us, we are a little bit earlier in our time as a group to be focusing on anything but getting the fundamentals right, and not trying and push the boundaries too much.”

Erasmus, of course, pushes boundaries every week. Schmidt is mostly okay with it.

“Sometimes he stretches things a bit far, like having a guy offside at the kick-off, and that has been dealt with by World Rugby as an intentional breach of the rules.

“Rassie is a great man for testing the boundaries. And if you do that and get a tactical advantage, with the athletes he has at his disposal, why not?”

The Wallabies are fresh from a colossal series against the British and Irish Lions, and Schmidt is pleased with his team’s progression across the three Tests.

“We put things in place, and to polish up on detail is the plan. At least we would like to be able to do that,” he grinned. “We would like to build after a good improvement across the Lions series.

“The thing is, the Boks have grown their game. Tony has added width to their attack. I expect them to be very strong in the set pieces, as they always are; their kick-chase game is strong; from turnovers, they have lethal finishers in (Kurt-Lee) Arendse, (Edwill) van der Merwe, and (Aphelele) Fassi. Then you have strong men in (Jesse) Kriel and (Andre) Esterhuizen.

“I remember two years ago, I was working with the All Blacks, and I watched this game between the Boks and Australia. Esterhuizen was a colossus and very difficult for the Aussies to contain.”

Schmidt said he is a fan of Manie Libbok.

“I recall clearly that no-look, kick-pass of Libbok’s against Scotland in the World Cup. That is the abundance of talent that they have. They can play in so many different ways. They can outmuscle you, they can outspeed you, and out-skill you.

“We have to be a lot better than we were in that last Lions Test, not just because of who we are playing but where we are.”

Schmidt has made just one change to his side that beat the Lions in that last Test, recalling veteran James O’Connor at fly-half.

Wallabies Team

15 Tom Wright, 14 Max Jorgensen, 13 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 12 Len Ikitau, 11 Dylan Pietsch, 10 James O’Connor, 9 Nic White, 8 Harry Wilson (c), 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Tom Hooper, 5 Will Skelton, 4 Nick Frost, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Billy Pollard, 1 James Slipper.

Bench: 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17 Angus Bell, 18 Zane Nonggorr, 19 Jeremy Williams, 20 Langi Gleeson, 21 Nick Champion de Crespigny, 22 Tate McDermott, 23 Andrew Kellaway.