After a disappointing 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign last year under Eddie Jones, the Wallabies were in desperate need of some stability and improvement in the Wallabies environment.
Joe Schmidt the former Ireland head coach and assistant coach of the All Blacks during the 2023 World Cup, took over the squad on a 2 year contract up until the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia.
In 2024, the Wallabies won six games out of thirteen in the first year under Schmidt, which is seen by many as an improvement to the disaster season in 2023.
Former Wallaby Morgan Turinui has given credit to Schmidt, as he believes the Wallabies have improved significantly under Schmidt.
“I think we’re a better side, probably in July than at the end of the World Cup. The End of the World Cup was the absolute rock bottom,” Turinui said to Martin Devlin on the DSPN Podcast.
“Poor selection, poor environment. Everything came together. One, you’re never as bad as you think you are, and you’re never as good as you think you are, I suppose.”
The 42-year-old sees specific improvements in many areas, like the breakdown and basic rugby skills to simplify the Wallabies gameplan.
“But I think what Joe Schmidt has done is incrementally improved this team, I’ve seen, a lot of breakdown work, a lot of basic skill work, into our team.”
“And that group of Wallabies, catch, pass, groundwork and ball presentation, contact skills, especially in their breakdown work.”
Schmidt has long been touted as one of the smartest attacking minds in international rugby, and Turinui believes the attacking play of the Wallabies in the 2024 campaign has come on leaps and bounds.
“I think, you know, if you’ve watched a lot of the Wallabies play, you’ll see some of the Joe Schmidt fingerprints around the way they attack, around the way he demands that his wingers work off the ball,” said Turinui.
“So you can see that there’s a coherent plan.”
When asked about how long Joe Schmidt will get as Wallabies head coach, Turinui was hesitant to discuss past the British and Irish Lions tour next year, and questioned the amount of time Schmidt will have in the lead-up to that series.
“Well, I think everything about Australia at the moment into this Lions series, which is eight months away now. I think he’ll get two more tests before that series.”
“So he doesn’t have much time. Super Rugby will be interesting as well. So time is definitely running out in terms of the hands-on effect you can have with this team.”
The 20 Test former Wallaby thinks that the team will benefit from the added experience of this year’s campaign, as Joe Schmidt added 19 new caps to the Wallabies.
“The great thing I think he’s done is, as I mentioned, lots of people have been in this wallabies environment. Have got a taste of it. They need to take all those things back and show them during Super Rugby,” said Turinui.
