There\u2019s still another couple of Tests left to run before Joe Schmidt walks away as Wallabies coach, but the New Zealander\u2019s legacy goes on the line against Ireland in Sydney on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Forget about last year\u2019s end-of-season shocker, where the Wallabies lost seven of their last eight Tests, should the men in gold snap their five-Test losing run against Ireland and topple Andy Farrell\u2019s men, Australians young and old will rue the fact that Schmidt won\u2019t lead the nation through to the World Cup next year.<\/p>\n
After a decade in the doldrums, Australians are crying out for the Wallabies to topple a top-tier nation at home.<\/p>\n
Defeats overseas in the middle of the night can be forgotten, but it\u2019s at home in prime time that the real pulse of the nation is felt.<\/p>\n
While the series was already over last year when the Lions arrived in Sydney, the victory over the famous touring side in the teeming rain at the Olympic Stadium led to spots of gold popping up everywhere in the Harbour City over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n
Rugby returned to the papers and 6pm news bulletins, and the code was discussed in pubs and cafes.<\/p>\n
However, that pulse has once again softened over the past nine months as the defeats have added up and Super Rugby, the once-revered club competition, returned.<\/p>\n
But up against the world No.3, with more than 40,000 to fill Allianz Stadium, the Wallabies can earn back some respect by taking down Farrell\u2019s men and snapping their losing run to Ireland, which dates back to 2018.<\/p>\n
Indeed, it was eight years ago that the Wallabies\u2019 fall down the World Rugby rankings was confirmed.<\/p>\n
After defeats to England and Scotland in consecutive years at Allianz Stadium, the 20-16 defeat to Ireland continued the Wallabies\u2019 horror show in Sydney.<\/p>\n
It was Schmidt in the coach\u2019s box that evening as he got one over Michael Cheika on a controversial evening, where Israel Folau was shown a yellow card for contact in the air despite dominating the skies for years.<\/p>\n
Now, Australia needs Schmidt to out-Schmidt Ireland.<\/p>\n
All week Farrell\u2019s men have been talking about how the lessons learned during Schmidt\u2019s long stint in Ireland still stand up.<\/p>\n
From James Ryan to Jack Conan, Paul O\u2019Connell and Farrell himself, Ireland\u2019s brains trust has said that Schmidt\u2019s legacy is still present in the current set up.<\/p>\n
Even Angus Bell, who recently returned from a stint at Ulster, said the shape the URC club plays with is straight out of the Schmidt book.<\/p>\n
But Schmidt now must show that even an old dog can learn new tricks by taking down Ireland.<\/p>\n
If he doesn\u2019t, he\u2019ll be the latest in a growing list of Wallabies coaches that hasn\u2019t been able to turn the nation\u2019s fortunes around.<\/p>\n
Tests, of course, will follow against France in Brisbane and Italy in Perth, but the pressure will only rise if they don\u2019t get over Farrell\u2019s Irish.<\/p>\n
After all, a date with world No.4 Les Bleus awaits, with Fabien Galthie\u2019s reinforcements out of Toulouse, including Peato Mauvaka, Manny Meafou, Romain Ntamack, to return after not being considered for their July opener against the All Blacks.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s why Saturday\u2019s Test is more important than first meets the eye, especially 15 months out from the World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s still another couple of Tests left to run before Joe Schmidt walks away as Wallabies coach, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54046,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-532057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-irish-rugby","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}