Wallabies great’s brutal takedown of Joe Schmidt

Australian rugby great David Campese has launched a stinging attack on Kiwi coach Joe Schmidt as the Wallabies’ struggles continue.

Following the dire tenure of Eddie Jones in 2023, who was parachuted into the Wallabies after New Zealand coach Dave Rennie was sacked, Schmidt has largely been left to pick up the pieces in Australian rugby.

Having been an assistant coach to Ian Foster, Schmidt has been appointed as Australia’s head coach through to the end of 2025, tasked with leading the Wallabies through next year’s British and Irish Lions tour.

However, despite Schmidt’s stellar coaching record with both the All Blacks and Ireland before that, his time with the Wallabies is yet to yield the transformative results Rugby Australia would have hoped for.

While Schmidt’s Australians opened their season with wins over Wales and Georgia, the Rugby Championship returned just one victory, a last-place finish, and another failure to recapture the Bledisloe Cup after home and away losses to the All Blacks.

All up, Schmidt’s record with Australia reads four wins and five losses from nine tests. Speaking to English outlet the Rugby Paper, Campese didn’t hold back in his assessment of Schmidt.

“I don’t believe we should have a Kiwi coach,” he said. “I was in New Zealand last week for the test. They all said, ‘Isn’t Schmidt a good coach?’ Why?

“What has he actually won? He hasn’t won anything. He might have won a Six Nations, but a World Cup is the ultimate, for any sports player or coach.

“He hasn’t won anything. We always seem to get a coach who hasn’t won anything. We always seem to get the second-best Kiwi coach. Never the first-best.

“Joe Schmidt has got no idea about our culture or history. We’re mauling the ball from 22 metres out? We don’t do that. That’s not Australian rugby.

“We used to counter-attack and attack from anywhere; we don’t even do that.

“I just think it’s very sad that we have to go through this again with another Kiwi coach.”

While his Wallabies are yet to emulate the great Australian sides of the past, Schmidt’s record with Ireland indicates he’s more than cut out for the job.

In 77 tests, Schmidt’s Ireland won 55 to go with 21 losses and one solitary draw. As head coach, Schmidt won the Six Nations three times, the Grand Slam once and led the Irish to a historic first victory over the All Blacks in 2016, and again in 2018.

More recently, Schmidt served as assistant coach to Foster and New Zealand, and was pivotal in the side’s upturn in fortunes from the lows of 2022 to reaching this year’s World Cup final in France.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission