Pressure on as Schmidt duels with Gatland for 12th time
New Zealand friendly foes and international coaching duellists, the pair have been battling for years — yet rarely has the pressure been ramped up quite so high for the Wallabies’ Joe Schmidt and Wales’ Warren Gatland in their crunch Cardiff Test.
This 12th duel of the pair’s much admired coaching brains on Sunday (Monday ADT) at the Principality Stadium comes with a feeling of real jeopardy for 61-year-old Gatland should Schmidt’s side consign Wales to a record-breaking 11th successive defeat.
It seems hard to imagine this proud rugby nation would continue to stick by Gatland should the Wallabies seal an even more terrible Welsh run than when another Kiwi coaching great Steve Hansen oversaw 10 straight losses between 2002 and 2003.
And Schmidt could be just the man to deliver the killer blow, as he has a fine record against the man he once played alongside in a New Zealand teachers’ team, having won seven and lost three of their 11 contests as coaches.
Yet, ironically, the 59-year-old Wallabies’ mentor, so often the target of jovial wind-ups by Gatland down the years whether he’s been with Ireland, New Zealand or Australia, reckons the fabulous win over England last weekend has put him under more pressure too.
“It’s funny, I feel under more pressure than I was last week, because last week, nobody expected us to win. Suddenly, when expectation shifts and you’re up against a team on a losing kind of run, you’re expected to win,” mused Schmidt.
“But it doesn’t actually mean anything in terms of the players running out and getting the job done, so I think everyone feels pressure.”
Among coaching head-to-heads, Schmidt and Gatland’s rivalry has only ever been exceeded in internationals by Graham Henry and Robbie Deans, who faced each other 15 times, while Michael Cheika locked antlers with Hansen 14 times.
Despite Schmidt orchestrating narrow wins in Sydney and Melbourne in July, he’s seen enough of Gatland’s latest charges to declare “they’ll be incredibly hard to beat … they’re dogmatic the way they go about their defensive work and very hard to break down.
“And, obviously, this time last year, Wales put 40 points on the Wallabies in the World Cup. So it’s not like they’ve metamorphosed into a bad team. They got very close to beating a number of teams in the Six Nations too.
“I’ve known Gats for a long time. He was obviously highly successful in his previous tenure with Wales.
“I think anyone can have a lean spell when teams are transitioning.”
With a side featuring six changes from the one that accounted for England and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii starting on the bench, Schmidt is trusting some of his experienced thirty-somethings to come to the fore, like Nic White, Samu Kerevi and Will Skelton.
“Will and Samu didn’t play last week, but they’re two really, really well respected players within the playing group. They’re both genuine leaders on the pitch and in preparation to get what we need done on the pitch, that’s a bit of a bonus,” said Schmidt.
“Samu is a high impact player, a handful to defend, and defensively, he’s slotted in really well. So we just want a really solid game from him and the ability to challenge the line, at the same time being really accurate in what he does.”
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