(Reuters) – Australia may appear at a low ebb after a record 40-point drubbing by Argentina, but New Zealand are taking the Wallabies’ threat seriously in the Rugby Championship, given the inside knowledge of coach Joe Schmidt.
The New Zealander knows a thing or two about helping struggling teams rebound, and plenty about the All Blacks.
He was named an All Blacks selector at the end of 2021 and then joined Ian Foster’s staff as an attack coach and strategist as the team slogged through an unprecedented rough patch.
Schmidt was seen as instrumental in the All Blacks’ resurgence as they marched to the brink of a fourth World Cup last year, which may be why they are wary despite the gloom that followed the Wallabies’ 67-27 defeat to the Pumas.
“He’s an incredible coach and I think he’s the right man for the job, at the helm for the Wallabies,” All Blacks midfielder Lienert-Brown told New Zealand media on Tuesday.
“It’s just his relentless drive to coach the little things that really matter in the game, like making sure you win the clean-out race and win the air and things like that… the grey areas of the game.
“And in test footy that can be the difference, there’s such small margins, and he understands that.”
There will be another insider plotting the All Blacks’ downfall when the teams meet at Stadium Australia in Sydney on Saturday.
Mike Cron, New Zealand’s celebrated “scrum doctor”, is coaching the Wallabies forwards and working on their set-pieces.
Cron helped prepare the All Blacks pack for more than 200 tests and was mentor to their current forwards coach Jason Ryan.
“The All Blacks have been a massive part of his life,” Ryan said, adding: “I probably didn’t think he would be coaching Australia, to be fair.”
The All Blacks, meanwhile, are building a new playbook under Scott Robertson, who replaced Foster after the World Cup.
Like the Wallabies under Schmidt, the players are still finding their feet, after a surprise home loss to Argentina and back-to-back defeats away to world champions South Africa.
With their own problems to work on, the All Blacks are taking little comfort in the Wallabies’ struggles in Santa Fe, where they conceded seven tries in the second half.
“We definitely won’t be buying into that second half that they played, because they’re much better than that,” said Lienert-Brown.
“And knowing Joe, he won’t have a problem getting them up.”
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Alexander Smith)
