Joe Schmidt’s forthright view on Wallabies’ Grand Slam hopes after England victory
Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt.
Australia head coach Joe Schmidt said his team won’t get ahead of themselves after they kicked off their Autumn Nations Series campaign with a fine victory over England at Twickenham on Saturday.
The Wallabies delivered an outstanding all-round performance against the Red Rose as they claimed a thrilling 42-37 win in front of a stunned capacity crowd.
But despite his team’s excellent start to their end-of-year tour, and their next three opponents – Wales, Scotland and Ireland – all losing their matches at the weekend, Schmidt downplayed talk of his side winning all their matches on their Grand Slam tour.
‘We won’t look too far ahead’
“The Grand Slam may still be alive,” he told AAP. “But we won’t look too far ahead.”
Australia are fully focused on their next match, which is against a Wales side who suffered their 10th successive Test defeat when they went down to Fiji for the first time in Cardiff on Sunday.
Although Schmidt will not admit it, those statistics will boost the Wallabies’ confidence especially after they claimed back-to-back victories against fellow New Zealander Warren Gatland’s troops in Australia in July.
A triumph over Wales will mean the Wallabies will be need just two more wins to achieve their Grand Slam goal and another win over Scotland will mean there will be plenty of interest in their final clash of the tour against Ireland, who Schmidt coached from 2013 to 2019.
“I still know some of those Irish guys quite well,” said Schmidt. “So we’ll see where we get to there.”
Succeeding in winning all four of their Tests will be a notable achievement for Schmidt in his first season in charge of the Wallabies as they have not managed to return to Australia with a perfect Grand Slam record since 1984.
Reflecting on their triumph over England at the weekend, Schmidt admitted that the result has done wonders for his players’ confidence.
“I’m not sure we’ve turned it around. I think we’re turning,” he said.
‘I’ve found a really good bunch of people’
“Inevitably, progress is never linear, so there’ll be a few peaks and troughs on the way further forward, but I’ve found a really good bunch of people, both in the staff and in the playing group.
“The players can grow confidence in themselves. And I thought some of the skill exhibited, some of the things we’ve been working really hard on, were certainly visible, which gives us a bit of confidence, certainly gives the players a bit of confidence.
“I think there’s green shoots.”
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