It took a chance encounter on the streets of Brisbane on Friday for James O’Connor to find out he was in the Wallabies Test squad to take on the Lions in eight days time.
“He was in passing just talking to some of the players, and the players said to him, ‘great that you’re back in the fold’,” Schmidt told reporters on Friday afternoon.
“And he said, ‘Oh, no, I was just in town and I saw you guys and thought I’d have a chat.’
“I said, ‘No, no, you’re back in the fold.’
“He’s pretty happy to be in the fold and immediately has a bit of a spring in his step.”
This is the latest example of the ad hoc nature of sleepy Joe Schmidt’s year to date.
Eight days out from most important series in Australian rugby since 2003, following two decades of disappointment, Schmidt, the supposed saviour of the Wallabies, who has been built up as the second coming by Rugby Australia, left it as late as mid-morning on Friday to tell O’Connor he was in the squad to take on the Lions.
While the rest of the Wallabies had gathered in Brisbane on Friday, O’Connor was coaching the Gen Sevens girls with former Australian women’s sevens captain Shannon Parry at Ballymore. Then he was off to the city to get his visa sorted ahead of his move to the United Kingdom.
O’Connor might have missed a phone call from Schmidt mid-morning, but the late timing of the 35-year-old’s call-up is inexcusable.
Joe Schmidt’s decision not to have an experienced playmaker in his squad has come back to bite him following Noah Lolesio’s injury. (Photo By David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
It comes after Noah Lolesio’s season-ending injury over the weekend.
While Lolesio’s injury was terribly unfortunate, Schmidt should have seen it coming for weeks. No, months.
After all, Lolesio had missed a month at the start of the season because of a head knock, got stretchered off in Perth two months ago and then left the field after ten minutes against the Chiefs because of another injury in mid-June.
Despite Lolesio’s recent run of bad luck and the fact that Tom Lynagh, another of three inexperienced playmakers in the squad, was wearing a pink bib for the first couple of weeks of Wallabies training, Schmidt perplexingly chose not to include a seasoned pro in his squad.
He didn’t even send a playbook to O’Connor, or another veteran playmaker like Bernard Foley, in case injury struck.
Shock horror, it did.
James O’Connor has been suddenly called into the Wallabies as Noah Lolesio’s replacement. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)
Schmidt didn’t even have the foresight to include O’Connor or Foley in the AUNZ squad from the outset. Neither have played a match in weeks, while O’Connor played just seven minutes in the Crusaders’ final two successful matches.
Instead, one-Test Wallaby Tane Edmed, who trained with Schmidt’s squad in recent weeks despite being in and out of the Waratahs this year, was handed the No.10 jersey for the last tour game before the Test series. He might come up against Owen Farrell, the former England captain who was included on the bench after being drafted in as the fourth playmaking option for the Lions.
But what about seeing whether O’Connor actually can make an impact against the Lions? After all, his last Test came against Los Pumas when Dave Rennie’s Wallabies were hammered.
What about including O’Connor in a training camp, or ensuring he plays for the Reds, his former side against the Lions? Better still, the AUNZ clash? Instead, O’Connor was in the stands watching despite wanting to play to press his claims.
Meanwhile, as the Lions played their fourth game in less than two weeks on Australian soil, the Wallabies were given four days off following their scratchy late win over Fiji on Sunday.
Rugby Australia management insist it’s because the Wallabies will play 15 Tests in 2025. But they’re forgetting the national side will slip further into obscurity if they don’t fire a shot against the Lions.
Add to that that the members of the Lions have played a Six Nations tournament and their domestic seasons span ten months and the “workload management” excuse becomes even more laughable.
And what about the Wallabies captaincy?
“There’s not a lot of things we can take our time on,” Schmidt told reporters on Friday at his squad announcement.
“We’re under pressure, it’s a short runway, but that’s one of the things that we just think we can take a couple of days and making sure we’re getting it right.”
Joe Schmidt has played Rugby Australia like a fiddle. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
A runway made shorter by the fact that you gave the Wallabies four days off.
Schmidt has played RA and fans like a fiddle in 2025.
Making it worse, RA takes every word he says as gospel after the trainwreck that was Eddie Jones.
Anything looks sane after Jones’ campaign, where the charismatic coach spoke of the New Zealand economy sinking if they lost the Bledisloe Cup.
But it doesn’t mean that Schmidt doesn’t have his fingers wrapped around RA.
Schmidt can coach. There’s no denying that.
But if the Wallabies crumble against the Lions, as Schmidt suggested they might last weekend, he shouldn’t be coaching the nation beyond the series given, at this point, he won’t be taking the side through to the 2027 World Cup.
