Completely agree. My issue is, if as claimed, he ignored guys like Rodda, Mark etc because of selection restrictions.
I find it hard to believe with as experienced an international coach Schmidt is, along with his good relationship with the GM, that he wouldn’t be able to pick the team he wanted. He’s been pretty clear from day 1 he views cohesion and organisation as more important than just picking bigger names
The prep is what it is with the quick turnaround. You can’t fit everything in in 2 weeks and trying to would probably make the players more confused. I’m guessing Schmidt will keep it pretty simple and organised for these games before getting the chance to build things on the EOYT. Schmidt is famous for being super organised, so i’m confident he knows what he’s doing. Also experienced with quick turnarounds with all the 6 nations he’s coached