Watch every second of the 2025 Autumn Nations Series live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWe are working hard and tiredness isn’t an excuse,\u201d Schmidt said in the post-match press conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to put an 80-minute performance out there. We can’t be 22-14 down and collapse like we did tonight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we had that five metre line out, we just couldn’t quite get the execution and accuracy right, and there was some good pressure from Ireland, but at the same time our execution wasn’t good enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we’re going to get more of that from France next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey tend to kick a lot. I think everyone kicks a lot now with the way the game is set up. It’s tough to carry a lot of ball, particularly through the middle of the field so you’re tending to go for competitive kicks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you reach and try to create opportunity, particularly with 14 against 15, then inevitably you lose a bit of your own equilibrium and allow a bit of opportunity or time or space to the opposition, and Ireland didn’t need too many second invitations.\u201d<\/p>\n
On top of the 16 high balls lost, the Wallabies also lost six of their own lineouts to the Irish, with Wilson lamenting the pressure those errors put on the side.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really disappointing, our line-out tonight,\u201d the Wallaby captain said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put ourselves in some good positions there, and our line-out really let us down there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you don’t have the heart of your set piece functioning well, it really does put the team under pressure there. It was quite disappointing because we pride ourselves on being quite good in that area, and we definitely let ourselves down there tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
While coach Andy Farrell still complimented the Wallabies on the year they\u2019d had after full time, including mentioning the Ellis Park victory, Schmidt was quick to stick to the performance of the evening, with the discussion of succession to Les Kiss also front of mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a fresher, kind of more complete team probably at the time [at Ellis Park],\u201d Schmidt explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don’t have massive strength and depth yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that’s a little bit of a slow burn, and it has to be built from the ground up. I think there were 19 debutants last year to build a broader base of international players, but the accumulation of experience through that broader group is still in its genesis, really.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, we’ve got to stay competitive at the top end. I know I’ve mentioned it before, around having a short-term focus but a long-term vision, and it is getting that balance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think as we start to get toward the end, we’re disappointed with some of the end games that we’ve had because it was something we took real pride in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think as things accumulate with players having travelled a lot and played a lot, we’re just not as competitive in that last quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schmidt now has to turn his attention to the final match of the year, as the Wallabies look to finish their long year on a high with victory over Les Bleus for the first time since 2021.<\/p>\n
The head coach has had plenty of success at Stade de France over his long career, but he expects a big challenge from the French, who overcame a determined Fiji 34-21 earlier in the evening.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI guess I can try to add my experience and chat to the group,\u201d Schmidt said when asked about his record in France helping the Wallabies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve had some really good experiences at the Stade de France with massive respect for Les Bleus, but at the same time, I’ve got huge respect for the players and how they will try to make sure they’re as well prepared for next week as they possibly can be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that we didn’t do ourselves justice in that second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly believe that if people write us off, we were written off before the Lions, we were written off before going to South Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re just going to have to make sure that once we land in Paris tomorrow, that we recuperate as best we can, have a really clear plan, and then just go after it as best we can.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt likened the Wallabies’ 46-19 loss to Ireland to a \u2018collapse\u2019, as the side…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,26779,760,85,2500],"class_list":{"0":"post-287470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-rugby","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-wallabies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}