The Ireland rugby coach, New Zealander Joe Schmidt. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
New Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt says he has never been so unprepared for a test coaching role and plans to experiment in the July tests against Wales and Georgia as he gets to know the Australian players.
The New Zealander coached Irish province Leinster before stepping up to run the national team and had a spell with the Auckland Blues before joining the All Blacks setup ahead of last year's World Cup.
"I've never been so unprepared, to be fair," Schmidt told reporters on Thursday after a four-day camp with the squad in Queensland.
"This is the one time I've got to meet all these players and, in those previous roles, I'd had three years with Leinster and I knew a greater proportion of that squad. Before the All Blacks, I had the Blues, and so it's a little bit daunting, to be honest.
"But if I wasn't nervous, I don't think I'd be on the edge doing my job right. So I'm happy to be nervous because it just encourages me to work a bit harder and engage a bit quicker and a bit more often with the players."
Ian Foster Coach of the All Blacks and Joe Schmidt Assistant Coach of the All Blacks. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
When asked about the captaincy, Schmidt said it was going to be hard to select one until he knew what his core of regular starters looked like.
"I'm just getting to know them," he added. "I think it's easier to select that first captain once you've selected your team to make sure they're a starting player.
"Probably there'll be a little bit of movement in the side. I'm pretty sure that we'll use more than just 15 of the same starters, so there could be a different captain for one or two of the tests.
"And that will also allow us to just experiment a little bit. But you can't experiment too much when you've got a team like Wales coming."
Wales, who the Wallabies play in Sydney and Melbourne on consecutive Saturdays from 6 July, effectively ejected Australia from last year's World Cup with a 40-6 drubbing in Lyon.
Australia also host Georgia in a one-off test on 20 July at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Schmidt was equally unforthcoming about the way he wanted Australia to play.
"I'm still learning what [their] strengths are," he said.
"So I'm not going to say that we've arrived at a way to play that's going to be successful, because that's going to take one more week, hopefully, and then we can put something together next Saturday."
- Reuters