The first week in Australia has already seen some strong words between the Wallabies and the British and Irish Lions
Australia head coach Joe Schmidt has hit back at the British and Irish Lions’ warning that he is contractually obliged to release his Wallabies stars to their Super Rugby franchises throughout the tour.
On Monday, Lions CEO Ben Calveley called for all Wallabies to be allowed to represent the Western Force, Reds, Waratahs and Brumbies in the build-up to the Test series, stating their involvement is part of the tour agreement. However, Schmidt has hit back at Calveley’s remarks – saying he will ring-fence a core of 25 players for the warm-up game against Fiji on July 6 to ensure he doesn’t pick up any injuries.
The Lions kick off their tour Down Under this weekend in Perth with a game against the Western Force – with the Force the only team they face who are certain to have access to their full contingent of Wallabies, after Schmidt insisted it was unrealistic for his stars to double up for club and country in the coming weeks.
“There’s some serious plate spinning at the moment, trying to get ready,” Schmidt told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“The ambition is there’ll be some going back to the Reds, and some going back to the Waratahs.
“But in reality, the Lions have got their squad. Are they going to play their best team every week? That’s unlikely.
“So are we going to play all the same players every week? I’m not sure whether (coach) Andy (Farrell) was part of that discussion or whether it was just coming from the CEO, but I’ve read the tours agreement and it’s having the best intention to have the highest quality players available and playing.
“It’s not as specific as saying every Wallaby from a state or a club has to be available to play every game that the Lions come through on.”
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The Wallabies coach added that he believes that his coaching team and Rugby Australia have worked hard to adhere to the agreement in the “most positive way” possible. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.
“The Reds, you’ve got a lot of guys there who played for the Wallabies last year. And some of them are returning from injury and we wanted them to play anyway,” Schmidt said.
“There are a whole lot of guys in the group for the Reds who we had in a hub up there. Just about every player who will play against the Lions was in our wider squad.”
Schmidt’s robust response to Calveley comes after he took a swipe at the Lions for the number of overseas-born players in their squad last week.
He described Ireland’s Bundee Aki and Scotland’s Sione Tuipulotu as a “southern-hemisphere centre partnership” when they were selected to face Argentina on Friday night.
Aki and Tuipulotu were born in New Zealand and Australia respectively, while James Lowe, Jamison Gibson-Park, Duhan van der Merwe, Pierre Schoeman, Finlay Bealham and Mack Hansen were also born outside Britain and Ireland.
The Lions will take on the Queensland Reds, Waratahs, Brumbies and an Invitational AU & NZ side before the first Test in Brisbane on July 19.
