Joe Schmidt details key areas where Wallabies must improve to beat British and Irish Lions

The Wallabies’ spirited second half comeback wasn’t enough to knock over the Lions in the series opener, but coach Joe Schmidt saw enough to encourage him they can turn things around.

Australia might have lost the opening match to a red hot British & Irish Lions but Australian head coach Joe Schmidt still believes his struggling Wallabies at least won back some respect from the Australian rugby loving public with their brave second half fightback.

Trailing 24-5 with 38 minutes left on the clock, the Wallabies were staring down the barrel of a crushing landslide loss before they clawed back to 27-19, losing by just eight points.

The narrow margin flattered the Australians and Schmidt conceded the Lions were the better team and deserved to win but he was also immensely proud of the way the Wallabies picked themselves up when things started going pear-shaped.

“I’m not saying the Lions didn’t deserve to win it because I feel that they did on the balance of what they did, particularly the first quarter,” Schmidt said.

“We’re a comparatively young side out there who are still finding their way but there are some positives for us to take away.

“I’m not sure what the predictions were before the game, but to have a margin of eight points, I think is testament to the character of the players and the way they fought.”

READ MORE

Wallabies can’t accept mediocrity – or sport in this country is dead

Player ratings: The match-winner Wallabies must build around

The Wallabies scrum performed well against the Lions.

The Wallabies played better in the second half after Tate McDermott came on as halfback and Angus Bell moved to loosehead prop. Schmidt said he could make changes to his lineup for the second match.

The Wallabies scored two late tries as both teams finished with three apiece but the outcome was never really in doubt after the Lions scored just before and after halftime off the back of Australian mistakes.

Schmidt said his young side needs to eliminate their errors and play with more adventure if they hope to win next weekend’s second Test in Melbourne, though he thinks there’s enough bright signs to indicate they are a chance of squaring the series.

“There were a few things in the lineout that I think we can tidy up and I thought the scrum did a really good job of exerting a bit of pressure back on them,” he said.

“And in some of the collision work, particularly, I felt the bench added value when they came on in that last 20 to 25 minutes. We did get a bit of momentum and we weren’t far away.”

The Wallabies struggled in the lineouts against the Lions.

If the Wallabies need inspiration they need look no further back than this year’s State of Origin series where a desperate Queensland lost the first match convincingly but found a way to win the next two and capture the series.

Schmidt said he has no doubt his players have the desire and courage to come back.

“I honestly thought the players’ efforts showed a desperation, a desperation that they are so committed to playing for their country, that they are desperate to compete at all the contest areas in the game,” he said.

“But we’ve got to be more accurate. We’ve got to be able to probably not be a little bit submissive early in the game where we’re trying to find our feet. We’ve got to hit the ground running.”

Tate McDermott gave the Wallabies a big lift when he came on the field.

The encouraging news for Australia is that the three game series is still alive and Melbourne has been a happy hunting ground for the Wallabies.

In 2001 and 2013, the Wallabies won in the Victorian capital after losing the opening match in Queensland and Schmidt says they have all the incentive they need to do it again.

“We’ve got to keep learning fast and hit the ground running next week. Otherwise it becomes a dead rubber in Sydney,” he said.

“Inevitably you’re desperate to keep the series alive and I know that the Lions will want to close it out in Melbourne. So Melbourne is going to be massive for both teams.

“But the one thing I do feel that we earned is we probably earned some support.

“I think people who came along to support the Wallabies can go away feeling that they may not quite have been good enough, but they didn’t lack effort and they showed real character to climb their way back.

“I know it’s a cliché, but you can’t coach character. You live and die by the effort you’ll make to contribute to the team, and I just felt guys kept getting up and contributing.”

Lions bracing for Wallabies backlash in Melbourne

The British & Irish Lions are bracing themselves for an expected Wallabies backlash in next weekend’s second Test in Melbourne.

The tourists were far too strong for the Australians in Saturday’s series opener in Brisbane, comfortably winning the match 27-19 to take a 1-0 lead in the three-game series.

Already at skinny odds to win the series, the Lions are now in the box seat to go and finish the job after a performance that was far more dominant that the final scoreline suggests.

“To get off to a winning start, it’s huge,” the Lions’ head coach Andy Farrell said.

“Obviously that puts the pressure on (Australia) for next week and it keeps us in the tour, certainly up until the last game, that’s guaranteed.

“(We’re) Absolutely delighted, big occasion, big game, we know what coming to Suncorp means to Australia, so they would have been targeting this, so I’m delighted to come away with a victory.”

British & Irish Lions head coach Andy Farrell

But Farrell is also worried how the Wallabies will respond.

The Lions have won the opening match of series’ before but failed to close it out in the second.

On their 2001 tour of Australia, the Lions lost the series 2-1 after winning the opening game. On the Lions last tour to South Africa in 2021, they also went down 2-1 after leading 1-0.

In 2013, they also lost in Melbourne so Farrell is not counting his chickens yet, especially after the way the Wallabies fought back on Saturday night.

get and it came down to a decider after they slipped up in game two.

“We know what’s coming and we know what happened in the second half,” he said.

“So we roll on to the second game knowing full well what happened in 2013 when an Australian team becomes desperate.

“That is difficult to handle. We expect a different game next week, but having said that, we expect more of ourselves as well.”

The British & Irish Lions are expecting the Wallabies to fight back hard in the second Test

Despite his team’s comfortable win, Farrell was not pleased at the way the Lions finished in Brisbane.

Leading 24-5 with almost the entire second half to go, they dropped their guard and allowed the Wallabies to get in the match.

The Lions were never in any real danger of losing but the final eight-point margin will have given the Wallabies some hope heading into Melbourne.

“I thought we’d let them back into the game. It doesn’t really matter whether you think the game is won or lost,” Farrell said.

“There was a lack of discipline in the second half. We’d just give them a bit of a sniff to get back in the game physically.

“That shouldn’t happen and we talk about that, we talk about being next-moment focused the whole time and that certainly shouldn’t happen so two wrongs don’t make a round like you know so we need we certainly need to address that as well but I suppose subconsciously that tends to happen, not that it should.”

Maro Itoje is an inspiring leader of the British & Irish Lions

As a former rugby league international player who came off second best against the Kangaroos, Farrell knows how hard it is to win a series against any Australian national side so he has told his players they will have to play better to counter the expected improvement from the Wallabies.

“We have to have a realisation of what’s coming next week, because not only is that Australia’s second game under but because of what it means to them and how pro they are, it will mean the world to them,” he said.

Originally published as Joe Schmidt details key areas where Wallabies must improve to beat British and Irish Lions