Joe Schmidt demands Wallabies give under-fire Noah Lolesio more support against Springboks
Joe Schmidt has directed experienced backline players to “unburden” under-fire playmaker Noah Lolesio against the world champion Springboks.
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Joe Schmidt has directed experienced backline players to “unburden” under-fire playmaker Noah Lolesio against the Springboks this weekend as the five-eighth is set to come under more South African pressure.
Lolesio has held the No.10 jersey after last week’s hammering in Brisbane, although his halves partner Jake Gordon has been dropped from the 23-man squad altogether.
And despite the Boks making 10 changes to their team, they’ll again target the hot-and-cold Lolesio, who failed to spark the Wallabies backs at Suncorp Stadium and this time can expect to be targeted in attack and defence by returning star centre Lukhanyo Am.
“There’s a lot of responsibility falling onto Noah’s shoulders,” Schmidt said.
“When you’re a game driver and you’re in a new team and you’re trying to drive the team around the field as well as play your own game really accurately, I think inevitably you sometimes struggle to see all the spaces in front of you because you can’t see past the big South African boys that are coming your way.
“So I’m hoping that it’s not so much Nic that takes the pressure off him. I thought Hunter [Paisami] and Lenny [Ikitau] did a good job last week, and hopefully they can take a bit more pressure off him.
“Andrew Kellaway, he’s got good experience. As mentioned, Marika [Koroibete] has got 59 caps, and Tom Wright’s got experience.
“I think they need to share the load a little bit, because I agree, Noah is ... He looked a little bit burdened, and if we can unburden him a little bit, he’s got a good game that he can bring to the table.”
Half of Suncorp Stadium was decked in Boks green last weekend and there are fears that South Africans will outnumber Australians at Optus Stadium this Saturday.
“I was surprised in Brisbane,” Schmidt said.
“I know that Perth, there is a big South African sort of presence, and the expectation that Optus will have a decent cohort of green.
“I just hope that those Australians who come to support the Wallabies, that they put the gold on, so at least we can balance that.”
Schmidt has named 19-year-old Max Jorgensen to come off the bench for his Test debut, and says the teenager would welcome being a target of the world champions.
“Max has trained well, which gives him confidence, which gives the players around him confidence,” Schmidt said.
“He’s one of our quicker players. He’s good on his feet.
“And for a young man who will be stepping into the test arena against the world champions, he has a quiet confidence about him. At least that’s my perception. I’ve had a couple of brief chats with him, but I sense that he’s ready to go.
“I just think in the modern game it’s very hard to target someone illegally, obviously, because of the TMO and the consequence of targeting someone illegally. They may try to put the ball on top of him, but he’s good in the air.
“My perception of him is that he’ll be keen for them to kick it to him, so he can get his running game up and going.”
With a host of stars unavailable through injury, and in the case of Taniela Tupou a family bereavement as he attended the funeral of his father in Tonga, Schmidt resisted the temptation of calling upon overseas-based stars.
“It’s not like there’s a wealth of overseas players in the tight five. Obviously I’ve had a few conversations with Will [Skelton], and it’s a little bit complicated through the Rugby Championship.
“That’s not to say that he might not appear at some stage in the Championship, or certainly later in the year.
“But we are pretty committed to trying to grow some of our own resources here. We’ve used over 40 players so far. I know we’ve got to win Tests straight away, and we’re very focused on that.
“But we’re trying to build a group of 45, 50 that best vaccinate us against injury, particularly injury and double injury in the same position. At the moment we’ve still got Dave Porecki on the sidelines, Angus [Bell] has just come back, and Taniela’s not available. So we have been without three of our probably recognised front-rowers from last year.”
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