After six defeats in their last seven Tests, only a boilover victory at the Stade de France can stop them being the first Wallabies since 1958 to complete a winless four-match European sojourn and the first to lose 10 matches in a year.<\/p>\n
But Gordon, returning from a quad injury that kept him out of the Ireland<\/a> game, was pulled out of a training session earlier on Thursday as a precaution and must come through Friday\u2019s captain\u2019s run unscathed before his position is finalised.<\/p>\n After three straight woeful losses to England, Italy, and Ireland have prompted much criticism of his side, Schmidt talked of his pride at how they\u2019ve battled on without reward after pushing their conquerors close in all three matches before capitulating late.<\/p>\n \u201cAll you can try to do is show them the number of moments they put together really good play on this tour. If we can be still in the game through 60 minutes, I know how determined the players are to finish strong on this tour,\u201d said Schmidt.<\/p>\n Head-to-Head <\/p>\n Last 5 Meetings<\/p>\n Average Points scored<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Asked about his overall assessment, he sighed: \u201cI\u2019ve found it really frustrating, to be honest, just because I do see that improvement in some of the players for sure, and when improvement isn\u2019t rewarded, there\u2019s frustration.<\/p>\n \u201cI know how hard the players are working and what it means to them, and they are frustrated that they feel like they\u2019ve let supporters down, because we\u2019ve had fantastic support.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be one of the tougher last couple of weeks that I\u2019ve had in a very long time.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re determined to stick with it because they\u2019re incredibly proud of representing their country, and they\u2019re incredibly committed to earning the support they\u2019ve had.\u201d<\/p>\n The Wallabies can still secure their crucial top-six world ranking for the upcoming 2027 World Cup draw, but it\u2019s a real long shot as they must beat the Six Nations<\/a> champions by 16 points.<\/p>\n With the team having to adjust to plunging temperatures in Paris after a relatively mild, if wet, three weeks across the English Channel, Schmidt says he\u2019s tried to \u201cfreshen up\u201d a \u201cfatigued\u201d side, even cutting out Monday\u2019s planned training session.<\/p>\n \u201cWe try to cut our cloth to how people are feeling, and you cannot flog a dead horse,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve never been in any Test window for so long. The longest period they\u2019ll have had a break for since we started is eight days.<\/p>\n \u201cAs much as anything, it\u2019s emotional fatigue, as much as physical. So that\u2019s been challenging. We\u2019ve tried to adjust as the season has gone on.\u201d<\/p>\n Ringing the changes, he\u2019s given an opportunity to 23-year-old Queensland Reds\u2019 scrum-half Kalani Thomas<\/a> to win his first cap off the bench as replacement cover for Jake Gordon.<\/p>\n Thomas is set to become Wallaby No.995 while Dylan Pietsch<\/a> is fit after a couple of weeks struggling with vertigo and back on the left wing in place of Filipo Daugunu.<\/p>\n It will be a landmark occasion for centre Len Ikitau<\/a> and prop Angus Bell<\/a> as they win their 50th caps.<\/p>\n Wallabies team:<\/p>\n Angus Bell, Billy Pollard<\/a>, Taniela Tupou<\/a>, Jeremy Williams<\/a>, Nick Frost<\/a>, Tom Hooper<\/a>, Fraser McReight<\/a>, Harry Wilson<\/a> (capt); Jake Gordon<\/a>, Carter Gordon<\/a>, Dylan Pietsch<\/a>, Len Ikitau<\/a>, Joseph Aukuso-Suaalii, Harry Potter<\/a>, Max Jorgensen.<\/p>\n Replacements: Matt Faessler<\/a>, Aidan Ross<\/a>, Allan Alaalatoa<\/a>, Rob Valetini<\/a>, Carlo Tizzano<\/a>, Kalani Thomas<\/a>, Tane Edmed<\/a>, Filipo Daugunu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Under-the-cosh coach Joe Schmidt has revealed his deep frustration that the efforts of his \u201cemotionally and physically fatigued\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-297899","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-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297899","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=297899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763674150_626_806.png.webp\"\/)
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