Jeff Wilson claims Joe Schmidt wants to ‘prove a point’ against All Blacks after Wallabies boss aimed ‘integrity’ swipe at Scott Robertson
Joe Schmidt and Scott Robertson shake hands in 2024, and former All Blacks star Jeff Wilson.
All Blacks great Jeff Wilson believes that Joe Schmidt has added motivation for the Bledisloe Cup and will want to show New Zealand exactly what they’re missing.
The 60-year-old joined Ian Foster’s backroom team in 2022 as attack coach and played a key role in them reaching the 2023 Rugby World Cup final.
Schmidt then left the All Blacks set-up and in early 2024 was appointed Wallabies boss, initially until the conclusion of the British and Irish Lions series before he extended his deal.
He will therefore remain in charge for the remainder of the Rugby Championship and the end-of-year tour with his contract finishing in July 2026.
Schmidt’s views on Robertson
The former Ireland boss will come up against Scott Robertson, someone whose “integrity” was questioned by the current Australia head coach in Foster’s autobiography Leading Under Pressure, which came out in June 2025.
Robertson did a podcast interview while Foster was still All Blacks boss where Schmidt claimed the 51-year-old “applied pressure” by discussing the vacant Fiji job having stated he “wanted to win the World Cup with two different teams.”
According to Schmidt, that made it “bloody awkward for Foz”, who was angry that New Zealand Rugby decided to announce his successor before the World Cup had started.
The governing body were determined to tie down the then-Crusaders head honcho and Robertson sending out feelers to other countries potentially resulted in NZR acting hastily.
It therefore adds another interesting subplot to the Bledisloe Cup, while Wilson potentially muddied the waters further by asking whether Schmidt would like to lead the All Blacks.
“Do you think Joe Schmidt would ever want to coach the All Blacks?” he queried on The Breakdown, to which fellow ex-New Zealand international, Stephen Donald, responded: “I dare say of course he does.”
Wilson particularly found it interesting that Schmidt decided to extend his deal beyond the Lions series, which takes in the Rugby Championship and these two games against the All Blacks.
‘How motivated do you think Schmidt is?’
“I just wonder, how motivated do you think he is for this Test match?” he said.
“He’s decided to stay on a little bit longer, just a little bit longer. I know they’ve named Les Kiss for next year and he’s going to finish out the season, but I’m just looking at this from a [different] perspective.
“Mike Cron (former All Blacks scrum guru), the same thing, who’s part of the coaching team there. I think in some ways they’re trying to prove a point about coaching credentials.”
Schmidt is known for his attention to detail and the Wallabies boss will have even more information for his players having worked with a large proportion of this All Blacks squad.
“If you’re talking about a team being prepared, no team’s going to be better prepared for this game, through experience and being on the other side of it – trying to defend it in an All Black environment,” Wilson added.
“He probably knows how the All Blacks are going to prepare, and individually knowing the players. Australia’s got no better chance than they’ve had for a long, long time.”
