By Lucky Vince Pienaar
It’s hard to remember a time when Australia was one of the most feared teams on the rugby field — a time when a win over the Wallabies was a major achievement for any country.
It’s even harder to remember that they won the Rugby World Cup in 1991 and again in 1999.
The mere mention of names like David Campese, Nic Farr-Jones, John Eales, Tim Horan, Stephen Larkham, and George Gregan struck terror into the hearts of those who had to play against them.
At the 2023 World Cup, they exited at the group stages — a first for the once proud Wallabies.
And already the Australian “faithful” are predicting doom for a team with the appointment of Joe Schmidt as head coach — with most of them complaining that he is not an Australian.
Schmidt is a New Zealander, but he is also a professional — and top of his game at that.
Schmidt won three Six Nations crowns in a seven-year stint as head coach of Ireland, guiding them from a battling outfit to one of the best in the world.
Schmidt will coach the Wallabies for the next two seasons until after the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour — where he will cross swords with Lions coach Andy Farrell, a man he mentored to become a top international coach.
Not only is Schmidt one of the top coaches in the game at the moment, he proved that he can build great teams from the ground up.
But he needs the country to stand behind him. If the Aussie fans manage to break him down before he has even started, perhaps they deserve to be a team of losers.
Pictured above: Joe Schmidt.
Image source: X
