While Australia's 30-12 loss to South Africa in The Rugby Championship yesterday marked another loss on Joe Schmidt's record, their improvement was obvious and the game featured no fewer than a handful of classic plays that had Schmidt's name written all over them.
With Australia set for a trip to Argentina next, Schmidt had no problem playing his part in teeing up a clash of the coaches, as he prepares his side to face a former Leinster star and coach who will be more than wise to his tricks.
Despite losing 30-12 to an admittedly depleted Springboks side, it wasn't all doom and gloom with the hosts going toe-to-toe with the World Champions for the entirety of the first half - going in at the break trailing by a mere two points.
However, even though their gallant efforts kept the Springboks within touching distance well into the final quarter of play, a 65th-minute try from Malcolm Marx and the introduction of the bomb squad proved too much for Schmidt's men, with Marx going over the whitewash again less than ten minutes, sealing Australia's fate in the process.
Joe Schmidt blueprint! 👌Earning a 50/22. Paint a picture tell a lie! pic.twitter.com/0NzoFw33Eh
— Katleho Lynch (@LynchCoach) August 17, 2024
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Schmidt tees up coaching classic with former Leinster protégé
While Schmidt's tactics might be a breath of fresh air Down Under, they'll do little to surprise Argentina head coach and former Leinster star Felipe Contepomi, who cut his coaching teeth under Joe Schmidt.
Despite often being an unsung hero of Leinster, Contepomi had been a never-ending presence for Leinster as they rose to the pinnacle of European rugby, winning European Championships both as a player and a coach.
Speaking after the loss to South Africa, Joe Schmidt was understandably excited to clash with his old protégé, telling reporters:
One of the things about this competition is it’s not going to get any easier. We play three of the four semi-finalists (from last year’s Rugby World Cup) and we weren’t one of them so it doesn’t get easier going to Argentina next.
They’ll be disappointed with their first-half earlier tonight but that demonstrated just how tough they can be to beat when they toppled the All Blacks and didn’t even give them a bonus point.
I’ve known Felipe Contepomi for a long time, I have a lot of respect for his rugby intellect and he’s a top man. Being friends certainly stops at kick-off, though, so they won’t be taking it easy on us and we’ll try to make things difficult for them.
While the prospect of facing Contepomi might've been lifting Schmidt's mood, he was less than enamoured by the official's performance in their clash with South Africa, calling out their confusion over scrummaging rules that saw Australia forced to use uncontested scrums, after an injury disaster hit their front row.
It’s probably one of the most bizarre games I’ve ever been involved in. In over 100 Test matches that I’ve been involved in, I’ve never had a situation like that before.
It happened so early in the game as well. When Slips got a head knock right after half-time and then we were straight down. And then we played with 14 for a period of time before the officials worked out that we were still entitled to have a full pack because of the HIA.
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