Wallabies: Joe Schmidt explains James O’Connor selection following leadership backing
Wallabies fly-half James O'Connor warming-up in 2025
Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt has backed James O’Connor to star at fly-half this weekend after cracking the Test side for the first time in three years.
O’Connor was one of two changes to the Wallabies’ 23-man squad ahead of their Rugby Championship opener at Ellis Park, coming in for the injured Tom Lynagh.
The experienced back, who will join Leicester Tigers at the end of the Rugby Championship, made his Test debut back in 2008, and has won 64 caps for Australia at the time of writing.
‘He’s pretty excited by that opportunity’
His selection has come via some good fortune ahead of the clash at Ellis Park, with Ben Donaldson initially in line to start before picking up a knock in training, but the Wallabies boss is still backing his man to shine come Saturday.
“The good thing with James is he came in right at the start of the Lions series,” Schmidt said. “So he’s had three weeks with us.”
“He’s had a period to probably just assimilate himself into the systems that we run and to start gaining confidence that he could run the game, and the confidence of the players that he was a guy to listen to. He’s done that really well, and that gives us confidence.
Schmidt added: “I tracked him throughout Super Rugby while he was playing for the Crusaders, and I’ve seen him play for a number of years. He hasn’t played for the Wallabies in three years, so he’s pretty excited by that opportunity.”
O’Connor wasn’t the only option to come in at fly-half either, with Waratahs fly-half Tane Edmed also now with the squad in South Africa; however, Schmidt was hesitant to throw the 25-year-old into the deep end at Ellis Park after only just coming into his squad.
“Because of Tom Lynagh’s injury in that last Test against the Lions, Tane’s only just joined us.”
We’ve got a fair bit of confidence in Tane as well; he was on tour with us last year, very briefly, and made his Test debut, but he had a very disrupted Super Rugby season. He didn’t play a massive amount of minutes and didn’t play consistently for the Waratahs, so we’re just trying to balance all those things at the moment.”
