"Too far away to contemplate" Joe Schmidt is not focused on an Autumn Nations Series grand slam following Wales thrashing
Yesterday at 04:27 PM
Australian Head Coach Joe Schmidt weighed in on his side’s performance against Wales, Samu Kerevi’s red card and his feelings towards Gatland’s situation, as well as the rest of his side’s Autumn Nations Series campaign after a devastating 52-20 win in Cardiff against a shambolic Wales side.
Schmidt’s squad trounced the Welsh after a destructive second half performance from the Wallabies which saw them run in eight tries come the final whistle. Schmidt addressed the media along side his captain Allan Alaataoa following the match. Here’s what they had to say.
Schmidt opens up on his sides Autumn Nations Series grand slam chances.
Schmidt said “Too far away to contemplate, probably. We have talked about regenerating well tonight and making sure we don’t miss our flight to to Edinburgh. Get the front half of the week right and see what comes in the back half of the week. I do, I’ve got massive respect for Scotland. I think they will be very tough.”
“They play a fast game. They put massive pressure on the break down. They’ve got a good loose forward trio, but also I think their tight 5 have been going really well as well. And then when you when you get the ball to Finn Russell, he’s a bit of a magician. Then out wide, Darcy Graham’s been going super for them.”
“Duane Van Der Merwe on the edges, and in between them you know, we’ve got our very own who’s leading them by example, and Hugh Jones there doing a good job. So, you know, I don’t think I’ve missed anyone. They’ve got such a good depth as well. You know, if they don’t have a player, they can put another player in and be really effective. So, you know, and and we certainly haven’t looked as far as Dublin.”
Schmidt delighted with his sides performance:
He said “Yeah. It fluctuated, didn’t it?.Really happy with the start, especially a couple of the tries that we put together, we’re a bit lucky to probably get Nick Frost [try] one. It’s not often a lock lopes 50 odd meters to finish a try, but you take them whatever way, shape, or form they come in.”
“it was great to get the the mall up and going today. I think we got 3 tries through the mall, one early and those couple where we kinda needed something to probably keep a bit of momentum on our side once we hit the yellow card at that stage, and then obviously, that extended. So I thought the composure was really good because at 19:13, you know, you can start to feel that you’re suffocating. I felt we lost our shape. Even even toward the end of that first half where we had the position and finally gave up a penalty, we got a bit ragged, I thought it was a testament to the Welsh defence.”
“And at the same time, I felt we just lost our way a bit. So it was nice to get some momentum back in that second half. I felt in the last quarter, we put some good stuff together again.”
“he’s pretty distraught” Schmidt gives update after Kerevi sees red.
Schmidt said “He’s pretty distraught. 50th game for the Wallabies and getting that red card, and you know he was trying to drop into the tackle, and I felt Max just dropped as well. We were surprised that there was no mitigation, particularly because Max played on and there was no ping on his mouth guard.”
“It was then described as high danger. But that’s just the the world we live in now. We will look at that closely and potentially ask some questions through the right channels.”
“it’s tough for the Welsh players at the moment.” Schmidt sympathises with Wales and Warren Gatland.
The Australian head coach said “We were talking before the game, and we both shrugged our shoulders at the end of it and said who’d wanna be a coach? You know?. It’s tough, but it’s tough for the Welsh players at the moment.”
“I could see how hard they were working, You know, the way they built their way back into the game at 19:13.There’s admirable stuff and they probably just needed a couple of breaks to go their way. Even at 40:27, if the pass hadn’t have been forward and they score in the right hand corner, you know, you’re almost within range, and you don’t know what can happen. So I think the scoreboard exaggerates the difference between the two sides. I don’t think it was as different as as the scoreboard suggests.”
“But when you’re trying to chase a game, the you start to overplay potentially, and then the game loosens up. And it either comes off or it doesn’t”
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