Totally agree but I have been hearing this ever since Robbie Deans got the bullet. I just did a trip to the UK and speaking to old rugby mates of mine their grass roots aren't booming either. My old club now employs many SA players and they have gone from 5 teams in my day to one team plus 2nds who play a short season and a women's team.
I just hope we figure out how to get the best out of him
That's pretty normal for us, or vice versa. I'm not saying it should be, but I'm not judging the coach on it. FWIW I think it's pretty clear that Schmidt's coaching brief is all about the Lions tour in 2025, sure we shouldn't normally accept as much collateral damage on the way there but we were pretty much at an all time low so anything resembling a climb out of the hole is a win at the moment. We will get a better idea how he is tracking on the tour, as his strategy and selections are all about countering how those teams play.
I’ll judge him on it as he’s genuinely a good coach and it’s his job to change it
We should beat Wales as they're 11th, haven't won a test in 12 months and we beat them twice earlier this year but playing in Cardiff will be a lot harder and Ireland and England away are realistically probably going to be too god for us
Are England that good? Sure Ireland will be a tall task, but the others are all winnable games for a supposed world class coach that has had a fair amount of time with the players now
I don't see us having a good chance of beating England over there
Meh, their coach’s can’t even get along and I maintain England aren’t that good. It’s a winnable game
You'd have to say Scotland is quite 50-50? Although I think they go in favourites
Scotland are better than England IMO. Both winnable games
Happy for Edmed. Bit weird though, Schmidt barely gave Donaldson or Lynagh a chance with through his persistence with Noah
It's likely that whoever drops out will get more game time over those first two weeks with them running the show for Australia A. Big question will be how much Schmidt uses Edmed (if he ends up in the top squad, Christy's article said it was looking likely, not locked in) and whether or not he stays after the A squad goes home or if he's knocked back out after good performances from the A squad.
I don't think they are that good but they are currently better than us. They will do the basics well and being at home aim to break us over the last 20 minutes. Keep it within a try and who knows....
Tells me he doesn't have much regard for either Donaldson or Lynagh at this stage so he's going with the steady hand who hasn't shit the bed yet. I reckon he wants to see Edmed at training. They gauge a lot there and see a lot more of them than we do just in games.
Noice.
I reckon he is happy with Donaldson as the reserve, and doesn't rate Lynagh at this stage (although this may be just my bias because I don't think Lynagh is fast enough, strong enough or physical enough for test rugby at this stage)
He's useful as he can cover 10, 15. Is a guy like Stewart more useful? Either way it's picking between guys who aren't going to spin a Test on it's head.