However, the significance of the Australia Grand Slam tour of the Home Unions this autumn cannot be underestimated, with the 2025 Lions tour only nine months away. The Lions is a rivalry as intense as it gets for Australian rugby, so there will be huge expectation from all sides ahead of the tour.
What happens against England on Saturday, and after that against Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, on consecutive November weekends will be a clear measure of how competitive the Wallabies will be against the Lions.
Schmidt's job, as with any head coach, is to connect with the Australian players in such a way that they feel they are about to embark on an amazing journey which could be the highlight of their rugby careers.
Given Schmidt's coaching record, it's unlikely that he has got the early bounce that he wanted since taking over as Wallaby coach in the summer. After a good early run with two home wins over Wales, and another against Georgia, reality struck in the Rugby Championship when Australia finished bottom of the table with five losses and only one win.
It means that Australia are now as low in the World Rankings as they have been, and add that to the huge disappointment a year ago of being knocked out of the 2023 World Cup in the pool stages for the first time, Schmidt's team is desperate for some uplift.
It also lacks household names, which is strange because during my career you could reel off the names of the players in Wallaby teams without thinking, especially after they won World Cup titles in 1991 and 1999. That applied in some measure even up to the 2015 World Cup, when Australia beat England in the pool stage before going on to reach the final.
この記事は The Rugby Paper の November 03, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は The Rugby Paper の November 03, 2024 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
I always wanted to play an exciting form of rugby
THERE were periods of my career where I felt like I was playing well enough to earn a shot with England. However, if you look at the way England’s gone, even with Marcus Smith now, he gets taken off when he is playing fantastic rugby just because he’s more of a flair player and as a result has a stigma attached.
England must find a way to deliver
WITH Christmas fast approaching, it’s time for us all to look forward to better things and hope we achieve them.
I've still got plenty to give, says Beaumont
JOSH Beaumont prepares to put his body on the festive front line again in the Sale cause revealing his biggest “regret” has been not winning an England cap.
Saracens fight back to overcome Bears
SARACENS secured a pulsating victory over a Hannah Botterman-inspired Bristol Bears to move to within a point of the summit of the table.
Hopkins in snatch it
AFTER the resignation of their popular head coach Toby Booth earlier in the week, Ospreys were given a huge boost when replacement Iestyn Hopkins crashed over with the clock in overtime to condemn their fiercest rivals to yet another defeat in Swansea.
No Mostert? That's got to be a mistake
HERE'S a funny thing: one of the more prominent rugby sites on the world wide web super information highway thingy has just published its list of the 100 best players in the sport. And no, the Spring-bok lock Franco Mostert isn't in it. ALLOWED
Tompkins hits the 200-mark for Saracens
MARK McCall has hailed Nick Tompkins, who makes his 200th appearance today for Saracens against champions Northampton at StoneX Stadium, as the epitome of a player the club aims to produce.
Anguish for Chiefs as Sale march on
GEORGE Ford’s educated right boot proved hugely instrumental as Sale subjected rock-bottom Exeter to yet more misery and gloom.
Rampaging Bears tear Tigers apart
BRISTOL produced a memorable display of attacking rugby which left Leicester thoroughly shaken and stirred.
England's outsiders deserve a chance niveste cu
IT’S just six weeks before the start of the 2025 Six Nations, and since Steve Borthwick became England head coach his main message to the media has been we want to get better. However, by the end of the autumn series, Borthwick had become a bit more critical, saying that England were not fit enough, and were not carrying what they had been doing in training into matches.
