Scotland Coach Gregor Townsend Identifies Schmidt’s Growing Influence on Wallabies

Scotland’s head coach, Gregor Townsend, has stated that he perceives resemblances in the progression of the Australian rugby team under Joe Schmidt’s leadership when compared to the New Zealander’s successful coaching period with Ireland. Prior to assuming the role with Ireland, Schmidt secured consecutive European Cups with Leinster and subsequently guided the Irish national team to three Six Nations championships, notably achieving a Grand Slam in 2018. Following his appointment as coach of the Wallabies after last year’s Rugby World Cup, where the team did not advance past the pool stage, Schmidt’s tenure began with a challenging Rugby Championship. During this competition, his squad concluded at the bottom of the standings and experienced a record Test defeat, a 61-22 loss to Argentina. Nevertheless, recent triumphs against England and Wales this autumn have fueled anticipation that Australia is once again establishing itself as a formidable contender, as the team gets ready to play Scotland at Scottish Gas Murrayfield on Sunday. “It’s very similar to how he built a successful period with Leinster and Ireland in particular,” Townsend said of Schmidt. “There’s a lot of focus on the contact area. He selects players that are really good in the contact area throughout the 15. They obviously spend a lot of time on it so their ball presentation and speed of ball is a big thing that drives them.” “They also have a similar model of defending. There are always a few special plays as well that Joe will bring out and we’ve seen a couple of them already so we’ve got to be on our toes for that. When you couple that with the quality that Australia have, they’ve got some really good players. They always have.” “There’s a lot of depth in Australian rugby, whether that comes from the club game or players that are playing in Super Rugby. Now they’ve got confidence, you can see the quality coming through even more.”