Joe Schmidt consulted All Blacks snub for James O’Connor’s recall and reveals the personal dig he took ‘to heart’
Wallabies playmaker James O'Connor and an inset of head coach Joe Schmidt
Joe Schmidt says that it was not a spur-of-the-moment decision to recall James O’Connor to the Wallabies squad after the injury to Noah Lolesio.
O’Connor is set to follow Wallabies legend George Smith’s footsteps in playing the British and Irish Lions twice, a feat he could achieve along with James Slipper, following the pair’s inclusion in Schmidt’s 36-man squad.
Lolesio sustained an injury against Fiji in Australia’s only warm-up game before the Test against the Lions and while it was initially believed that he would recover in time to feature against the famous tourists, that did not prove to be the case as surgery was required.
In his absence, Schmidt has recalled O’Connor to the squad for the first time in his tenure, a decision that was not made lightly and one reached after the head coach had reached out to some of his connections for insight.
Ahead of the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season, the veteran Wallaby joined the Crusaders in New Zealand and would go on to make impactful cameos off the bench for the side as they charged to yet another title.
Reaching out to contacts
His performances with the men in red and black caught the eye of the Wallabies boss who confirmed again that he was in contact with O’Connor throughout the year.
“I’ve been talking to James for a long time, right through the Super Rugby season,” Schmidt said after announcing his 36-man squad.
“It’s not that far away from where we started. Obviously, we started with Noah Lolesio and with his injury, we needed to replace him.
“Our tens are young in experience anyway, so to get James in [made sense].”
With Lolesio sidelined, Schmidt wanted to get more experience in the fly-half role and before making his final call on who that would be, he consulted with Queensland Reds playmaker Tom Lynagh, who has been included in the squad, as well as All Blacks midfielder David Havili who played alongside O’Connor this season.
“I spoke to Tom Lynagh a little bit about the influence he had on him and his development and that was really positive,” the head coach said.
“I talked to David Havili, who is in the AUNZ team, and I’ve coached him and have a lot of time for his opinion. He said James was a real help with the two young tens at the Crusaders.
“So from that perspective, they were positives and at the same time, James of his own right played pretty solidly, coming on in the backend of the game for the Crusaders.”
He also spoke to AUNZ coaches Les Kiss and Ian Foster this week, who also revealed to Schmidt that the experienced players in their squad have settled in quickly, and he believes O’Connor will do the same.
“Like I said, we have had a few conversations during the year. He is not completely separated from what we are doing. Sure, he will be playing catch-up, but he is experienced enough to catch-up pretty quickly,” he continued.
“I know that talking to Ian Foster and Les Kiss this week, they’ve only had a week with the AUNZ team and those guys have come together pretty quickly.
“So we will be hoping that one player added to our squad can pick things up pretty quickly and the same with Josh Canham has obviously spent more time with us recently.”
O’Connor’s value
The experienced coach has learnt during his career just how important player-to-player coaching can be, an area where he feels the Leicester Tigers-bound playmaker will add huge value.
“Just a calm voice and one of experience,” he said when asked what he expects from O’Connor.
“One of the things I’ve learnt in a long coaching career is there is a lot of player-to-player coaching, particularly when you have got good players, with good experience. So the time he can spend reviewing training sessions and decisions with the tens will be very useful to us.
“He sees the game well and I think experience allows you to see the game a little better just because you’ve experienced some circumstances where you’ve made good or bad decisions, where the game has swung on moments, where you’ve had to make decisions. And having been there and done that, he can pass on that experience in a pretty calm manner. He knows Tom Lynagh and Ben Donaldson well enough that he will pick those guys up and be very useful.”
The comment Schmidt took to heart
While Schmidt has been in regular contact with O’Connor, he did not inform him of his call-up to the squad until the morning of the official announcement which led to a remark from one of the Wallabies players that the head coach took to heart.
“James was unaware that he’d been selected until I saw him this morning,” the head coach revealed.
“He was actually talking in passing with some player and they said to him, ‘It’s great that you are back in the fold’.
“And he said, ‘No, I was just in town and saw you guys and thought we’d have a chat’ and I replied, ‘No, no, you are back.’
“He is happy to be back and immediately has a spring in his step.
Asked if O’Connor thought he was winding him up, Schmdit replied: “Yes, he did, and the two boys who were with me said to him, ‘No, he doesn’t joke’ which I took to heart really. I wouldn’t say I’m completely humourless, but maybe that self-awareness needs to be deeper.”
And what about, the player’s reaction?
“He said, ‘Are you kidding?’ and I think he was pretty happy,” Schmidt continued.
“He certainly ducked off to get his gear and come back again quickly. The thing was that we had discussions earlier in the week, we had discussions before the Fiji match, so it wasn’t as sudden as it seems today.
“We had discussions with other options as well and settled on James. Even coming to Suncorp, he knows the ground as well. It just seemed to us, in a short runway, that he would be best to do that.”
Lolesio’s injury
After the game against Fiji, the head coach was upbeat about Lolesio’s chances of recovering quickly but explained how the situation unfolded from a positive outlook to a cruel outcome.
“Those things happen like that sometimes, where the perception of the injury symptoms doesn’t reveal the full extent of the injury,” he explained.
“Symptomatically, he seemed to be recovering quite quickly, but diagnostically, it was felt best that he should undergo surgery.
“Post that, nothing happened quickly. There was a lot of reflection and discussion amongst coaches, some discussions with players and then a decision.”
