Be bold: Wallabies coach needs to make a big move to contend with British and Irish forces
If the Wallabies seriously want to challenge the British and Irish Lions in 2025, coach Joe Schmidt needs to make the sort of bold selections that can rejuvenate a fanbase, writes JULIAN LINDEN.
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If the Wallabies are serious about challenging the combined forces of the British and Irish Lions this year, Joe Schmidt needs to roll the dice and select Tate McDermott as his starting halfback.
A safe pair of hands, Schmidt has done an admirable job in rebuilding the fan base after Eddie Jones’ disastrous second stint as Wallabies coach, but the time has arrived for the New Zealander to be bold and pick a playmaker that gives the Australian team a shot at achieving something special.
Compared to Jones, who oversaw just two wins out of the nine test matches when he had control of the clipboard during 2023, Schmidt’s record of six victories and seven losses represents a marked improvement.
But in professional sport, where coaches live and die by their results, his winning percentage of 46 per cent is still nothing to shout home about because it is also the second worst return of any Wallabies coach in the last half century.
The only other Wallabies boss since 1979 with a record below 50 per cent was Schmidt’s fellow Kiwi Dave Rennie (36 per cent), with Jones’ (54 per cent) finishing on the right side of the ledger on account of his outstanding first tenure from two decades ago.
On current form, the Wallabies will be heavy underdogs to beat the Lions in their three-test series starting in July, so now is not the time for Schmidt to go weak at the knees.
He needs to brave and pick McDermott, one of the few current Australian players with the ability to turn a game.
Ask any rugby supporter and they’ll all tell you that McDermott is Australia’s most dynamic number nine since Will Genia steered the Wallabies to the 2015 World Cup final but he just can’t break into the starting XV.
An old school running halfback, McDermott has been killing it in Super Rugby for years, busting open defences with his electric darts from broken play.
He has been the form player again this season, guiding the undefeated Queensland Reds to back to back wins, including a brilliant showing against the Western Force on the weekend.
But test rugby is an altogether different beast because there’s a much heavier emphasis on passing and box kicking, which are not McDermott’s strengths.
For Schmidt and Rennie, McDermott’s perceived weaknesses in those two key areas have outweighed the benefits that his livewire attacking game brings.
While both men routinely pick McDermott as a replacement, they rarely chose him as their run-on halfback, opting instead for the comparatively safer options of Nic White and Jake Gordon.
That’s no surprise or dig at either coach. For all their talk about improvisation and spontaneous play, New Zealanders are notoriously conservative with their selections and tactics but have the results to back up their thinking.
The phenomenal success of the All Blacks is no fluke. New
Zealand’s enviable record is built on the cornerstones of meticulous preparation and everyone buying into the structures and disciplines required. Nothing is ever left to chance.
Australian rugby’s greatest moments have rarely followed that script.
Instinctive gamblers, the best Wallabies players and coaches have always embraced the theory of ‘high risk, high reward.’
For all his faults and mistakes, Jones understood that, which is why he not only picked McDermott as his starting half, but also promoted him to a leadership role, appointing him as Will Skelton’s vice-captain for the World Cup.
Jones might have got away with it had McDermott and Skelton not both been injured for the critical World Cup pool match against Fiji but lady luck conspired against them all. The plan backfired spectacularly when the Wallabies lost and missed the playoffs for the first time.
McDermott was one of the civilian casualties. He has only been chosen once by Schmidt to lead the team from the kick-off, but deserves another chance because benching him is a waste of his talent.
While conventional thinking dictates that gamebreakers like McDermott contribute more as impact players, the stats suggest otherwise.
The overwhelming majority of test matches are won by the team that is leading at halftime.
A former schoolteacher, the lesson for Schmidt is clear. McDermott needs to start against the Lions.
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Originally published as Be bold: Wallabies coach needs to make a big move to contend with British and Irish forces