Joe Schmidt’s candid take on whether Wallabies are trending the right way

Head coach Joe Schmidt remains confident the Wallabies are trending in the right direction despite their last-placed finish in The Rugby Championship. South Africa, Argentina and New Zealand all recorded big wins over Australia during the six-round competition.

The Wallabies’ most recent defeat came across the ditch at Wellington’s Sky Stadium, with the men in gold failing to maintain a red-hot start. Noah Lolesio scored the visitor’s last points in the 36^th minute, while the men in black ran riot in the nation’s capital.

Wing Caleb Clarke scored just before the half-time break to give the All Blacks the lead, and it was an advantage they’d never surrender. Tamaiti Williams and Clarke scored a try each in the second term to help the New Zealanders run away with a 33-13 win.

That was the All Blacks’ first win in Windy Wellington since 2018.

The All Blacks made sure to celebrate Sam Cane’s 100^th Test and TJ Perenara’s final international appearance on home soil with an incredibly loud haka. That celebration was heard from the post-match press conference room as the Wallabies’ coach and captain spoke.

While the New Zealanders were joyous and generally in good spirits after the Test, it wasn’t the same story for some of the Aussie players who were hurting after that loss. But their coach, Schmidt, is still positive about the direction of this side.

“Yeah, it does,” Schmidt told reporters in Wellington when asked if the Wallabies are trending in the right direction.

“We had that one half in Argentina that was pretty tough to take but the first half we led and Argentina are a very good side. Obviously, semi-finalists last year, they won here in Wellington which is more than we managed to do.

“On the back of last week, a three-point margin is skinny enough and even today, as I said, we probably rolled up our sleeves up sufficiently to maybe deserve one more try but you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you earn and we didn’t put it down over the line.

“As a group of coaches we’re pretty hard on ourselves; are we managing to get what we need from the group and have we got the right group? There’s a number of things we’ll reflect on.

“There are a number of positives over the last, certainly four weeks and even the last two weeks against the All Blacks.”

The Wallabies started their new era under Schmidt with three wins on the trot during the July window, but they’ve since won just one of their last six. That will see them carry the underdog tag into most of their Tests on what promises to be an intriguing Spring Tour.

Australia will take on traditional rivals England at Allianz Stadium (formerly known as Twickenham) in the early hours of November 10 (AEST). They’ll also take on Wales, Scotland and Ireland as they ramp up preparation for next year’s British & Irish Lions Tour.

The best players from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland will band together for a blockbuster three-Test series Down Under, as well as some other matches. Whether or not the Wallabies can compete with some of the best players from up north remains to be seen.

“Going north is for us still about building depth because that was this year’s big project was about building depth,” Schmidt explained.

“We’ve had 16 debutants and a new leader and Harry’s done very, very well.

“Those four Test matches, they make up the Lions for next year so we get a good look at their personnel. Some of them I still know from having coached them. I know them well and I know how good they are.

“It’s a bit like when we come up against the All Blacks, you know it’s going to be a really tough tour, but if we can keep building through that tour, then I think we put ourselves in a position of potentially being competitive next July.”