Joe Schmidt keeping his options open on Wallabies captaincy decision for British and Irish Lions series
Australia's head coach Joe Schmidt with two Wallabies captains Harry Wilson, left, and James Slipper.
Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt is comfortable waiting for a few more days before revealing his skipper for the upcoming series with the British & Irish Lions.
Schmidt announced his 36-man squad for the three Tests against the famous touring team with the opening clash set to take place at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane next Saturday.
Reds number eight Harry Wilson captained the Wallabies during their narrow victory against Fiji in Newcastle last weekend and also had the leadership role for the bulk of the 2024 Test season.
Keeping his options open
But Schmidt is keeping his options open for this choice as skipper against the Lions.
“We just want to get through the week far enough to announce a captain who is fully fit,” he told reporters. “A couple of guys that have captained us recently had a few knocks so we just want to be sure when we nominate a captain that they’re right to come through.
“I think when you nominate someone and they can’t train fully or they’re not available for the game, it just probably dilutes the authority of the guy who does have that responsibility on game day.
“We’re just going to hold our fire for another few days and also see how the squad settles and then make a decision from there.”
This has led to questions around Wilson’s fitness, but Schmidt is confident the number eight would be ready to take on the Lions and would be in the discussions for the captaincy.
“Harry had a couple of dings but he’s fine,” he explained.
“There’s not a lot of things we can take our time with. We’re under pressure, it’s a short runway but that’s one of the things that we just think we can take a couple of days and make sure we feel comfortable that we’re getting it right.
‘One of the players at the forefront of our thinking’
“Obviously, Harry has led us a number of times recently, so he’d be one of the players at the forefront of our thinking.”
Apart from Wilson, Schmidt confirmed that the rest of his squad are all fit and raring to go including the likes of Jake Gordon, Tom Lynagh, Will Skelton and Rob Valetini.
“We’ll have a light run here this afternoon, post this, and Tom and Jake will take full part in that, as will everyone. Everyone’s due to train and it’ll be my challenge to train them hard and not have any other injuries,” he added.
“That’s the fine balance and we know it’s going to be incredibly tough. We need to rev the engine a little bit and get straight into our work.”
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