Matt Williams: Joe Schmidt’s ‘bad coaching decisions’ cost Wallabies the British and Irish Lions series
Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt and an inset of Matt Williams.
Former Leinster head coach Matt Williams believes that Joe Schmidt has made some bad decisions during his time in charge of the Wallabies, one of which cost Australia the series against the British and Irish Lions.
Williams has hailed the job that Schmidt has done at Australia, with the New Zealander turning things around for the men in the gold jersey after a disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign under Eddie Jones. However, it hasn’t all been plain sailing for the former Ireland boss.
The outspoken pundit is not convinced that the Wallabies are back for good just yet, but believes that they are on the right track under Schmidt, with Les Kiss seen as a fitting replacement when he takes over the role next year.
Halfback issue
“It’s too early to say,” Williams replied when asked if Rugby Australia has changed for good on the DSPN podcast.
“There’s a revival going on there, and Joe deserves a lot of credit, but no matter how bad our system is here, and it is really bad, we can still put out 25 pretty decent players.”
He believes that there is a real issue with the Wallabies’ half-backs, with several inexperienced options in the number 10 jersey, which led to an SOS call to James O’Connor.
“Our nines and tens remain a major problem,” he continued.
“You could see from what we’ve done with O’Connor coming back in, young Tom Lynagh put in against the Lions with only one Test under his belt. Then there is Tane Edmed, who is a good kid, but he is not a complete player. He made some bad mistakes, but he has done some good things. We are just not producing those players.”
Schmidt’s bad decisions
Williams hailed Schmidt for building a squad that can compete with the best teams in the world and reserved particular praise for the manner in which Harry Wilson has been developed in the captaincy role. However, he pointed to the head coach’s decision not to select tighthead prop Taniela Tupou for the first two Tests against the British and Irish Lions.
“What Joe Schmidt has done is he has gone with a group of guys, two years ago, and he’s stuck with them,” he added.
“There is a number in Test match rugby, it varies from player to player – it can be anywhere from 15 to 30 – at around the 20 Test mark, players become comfortable playing Test match rugby.
“The pace, the intensity, the travel, the lead-up, how you look after yourself mentally, how you recover after the game for a Test match the next week. All these things are quite difficult; they just have to learn, and you never stop learning or growing.
“What Joe’s done is he’s kept this core group of players, and a great example is Harry Wilson; he picked him as captain, and I thought, ‘Wow, I didn’t see that’. Harry has developed and grown into an excellent captain. Leadership is a skill that you learn. How do you learn to be a leader? Lead, get out and lead. Make your mistakes, learn from them, and talk about them. Get advice from other great leaders, but keep leading.”
He added: “Joe has made a couple of bad coaching decisions, but he has stuck with that core group. He has Tupou back at tighthead prop for every Test; he didn’t pick him for the first couple of Lions’ Tests, and he should have. He was out of form, he was hopeless around the field, but he held up the scrum.
“He was our best scrummager; if we had a better scrum in that first and second Test, they would have won the Lions series. So, he’s learned and he’s grown. So, Joe’s learning about these guys as well. No coach is perfect, no coach is a panacea or a silver bullet and neither is Joe but he he has done a really good job blooding this side, giving them experience, giving them self-belief and that’s not just me talking, you can see that when they came from behind against South Africa, at Ellis Park from 17-0 down – that is not a fluke.
“That is not the bounce of the ball; that is a team that believes it can do something. They did the same against the Pumas.”
READ MORE: Springboks legend: All Blacks can’t ‘expect to win’ anymore, there won’t be another dominant era
