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Aussie Veteran Highlights Major Joe Schmidt Step Forward After Eddie Jones Farce

Aussie Veteran Highlights Major Joe Schmidt Step Forward After Eddie Jones Farce
Eoin Harrington
By Eoin Harrington Updated
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This summer's test series against Wales marks a new beginning for Australia, as the reign of Joe Schmidt begins Down Under.

The former Ireland coach took over as Wallabies head coach early this year and will be tasked with preparing the side not only for next year's Lions tour but for a Rugby World Cup on home soil in 2027.

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If Australia are to contend for World Cup glory in front of a home crowd in three years, there is an awful lot of work to do for Schmidt and his coaching staff.

New Zealander Schmidt takes over after the disastrous reign of Eddie Jones, which appeared doomed from the start.

After departing his role as England head coach, Jones returned for a second spell in charge of his native Australia. His appointment was immediately shrouded in controversy due to the hasty ousting of his predecessor Dave Rennie mere months out from the World Cup.

Jones would lead the Aussies to a historically poor World Cup performance, as they exited at the pool stage for the first time in their history.

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Rebuilding the morale is the first task at hand for Joe Schmidt and, judging by comments this week from veteran Nic White, he has already made significant progress in that department.

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Nic White highlights major change in Australia setup under Joe Schmidt

Veteran scrum-half Nic White has earned over 60 caps for Australia since making his debut for the Wallabies in 2013. Part of Joe Schmidt's first squad as Aussie head coach, White also played under Eddie Jones at last year's ill-fated World Cup adventure in Paris.

Appearing on the Kick Offs and Kick Ons podcast, White was asked by Aussie legend Matt Giteau whether there were any noticeable differences between Joe Schmidt and Eddie Jones as head coach.

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Though he refrained from outright slamming Jones' tactics as coach, it was clear that he saw the new regime as a major shift in the right direction for the Wallabies.

I think there's always a honeymoon period for anyone when they come in, there's that too.

But I think what he [Schmidt] has done before and the detail that he wants is very clear. Like I say, he's not overreaching, we're not gonna magically become this well-oiled machine within a week.

He's gonna layer it and he's given us very small parts of the game that we need to perfect around the ball and around the breakdown, and parts of our shape.

We're not gonna shoot for this perfection or the answers for everything in four days before test week. I think that's been really smart.

I think it's just having a measured expectation of where we can get to in four days. He's been really good around that.

Yeah, the bloke just speaks a lot of sense.

Irish fans will be all too familiar with the attention to detail favoured by a Joe Schmidt coaching team, but it certainly seems to be going down a treat with the Australia squad judging by Nic White's comments.

White has missed out on selection for the first of two tests against Wales, with Jake Gordon preferred by Schmidt at scrum-half.

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It will be fascinating to see if the veteran's claims about an improved atmosphere around the camp are reflected in a result against Warren Gatland's Wales this weekend. The two sides met at last year's World Cup, with the Welsh hammering the Wallabies 40-6. Any form of result of Joe Schmidt's men on Saturday would mark an enormous step forward.

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