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Joe Schmidt explains decision to pick Liam Wright as new Wallabies captain

Liam Wright talks to team mates during a Wallabies training session at David Phillips Sports Complex on July 04, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Australia coach Joe Schmidt has described new captain Liam Wright as an “understated” individual before explaining why the Queensland Reds backrower will lead with actions in the first Test of the year against Wales.

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The rumours are true. It’d be reported by multiple publications throughout the week that Wright, who has only played a handful of Test matches in the gold jersey and none since 2020, would become the Wallabies’ seventh captain in a year.

Former boss Eddie Jones gave the role to Michael Hooper, James Slipper, Allan Alaalatoa, Tate McDermott, Will Skelton and David Porecki at various points last year. But now is Wright’s time to carry the weight of responsibility as the Wallabies’ 89th captain.

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This is news that will come as a surprise to pretty well everyone in the rugby community, but the Queenslander has proven himself time and time again as a leader of men with a rapidly improving Reds outfit in Super Rugby Pacific.

Schmidt landed on Wright as Australia’s newest rugby skipper after first picking the team and then considering who already has a responsibility in the team. With Wright already taking on the role of lineout caller, the coach seemed assured in giving him the captaincy.

“I think with Liam he’s really understated. He’s a leader in a Super Rugby team anyway so he’s got that leadership experience,” Schmidt told reporters at Rugby Australia on Thursday.

“He was identified by the players as a natural leader in the group. He’s a lineout caller so he already has a responsibility in the team, not that he calls all the lineout but it’s one of the things he contributes to.

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“What all the coaches liked about Liam is he doesn’t really say that much, he just gets on and gets the job done really well. That’s probably it in a nutshell.”

Schmidt revealed there had been discussions with players about leadership but not the captaincy. The coaching staff, along with the playing group, wanted to find someone who “demonstrated the values and behaviours” worthy of the captaincy.

But it’s also an interesting call considering what happened last year under Jones. Slipper, Alaalatoa and McDermott are all in the squad but have at least initially been overlooked for the leadership position.

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That means the Wallabies will have a seventh captain lead them into battle in the space of just 10 Tests. The role could still be passed onto other players with Schmidt explaining that this isn’t necessarily a long-term decision.

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“At the moment everything’s pretty short-term, including our preparation. We’ve had four trainings really,” Schmidt explained.

“I’ve really enjoyed working with Liam, but the same with all the others in the leadership group and the players in general. They’ve been a super group to work with.

“It’s a really interdependent game, rugby. It’s one of the things I love about it but it does mean that your preparation has to be nailed on pretty well if you’re going to get the cohesion on a Saturday.

“While I can’t guarantee the cohesion, I think guys like Josh and the rest of the squad, I can pretty much guarantee the effort that will be there.”

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Comments

5 Comments
j
john 273 days ago

It is not surprising that a kiwi coach of Australia chose a dull, boring, unemotional, south african born and uninspiring captain of the Reds to lead the Wallabies.

It’s what kiwi coaches in Australia do. It’s very clever. To make sure Australians don’t get fired up and motivated, which is what kiwis are terrified of happening.

We can see you Joe. We have seen Robbie Deans and Rennie try to sabotage the Wallabies chances like this too.

I can gaurantee you that after selecting a second string Wallaby team, just like Deans and Renne did, Schmidt will soon be changing the team almost every game.

Then he will start playing players out of position. Then he will try running our best players in to the ground and lo and behold, there will be more room for Tah players.

I mean Jake Gordon, come on. The guy is just too lazy to even turn up to some rucks
and sometimes about half an hour late and so many Tah entitlement penalties. I mean how dare a Ref penalize a Tah player.

It’s all just soooo predictable.

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Despite my repeated attempts to contact the account manager who initially approached me on Telegram, I was met with silence. They refused to provide any explanation or information, and I was locked out of my account on their website. The authorities were unable to assist me, as the scammers were untraceable.

Just when I thought all was lost, my nephew, a Canadian government lawyer, introduced me to Morphohack Cyber Service, a reputable private investigator and crypto recovery company. I visited their website (www . morphohackcyber . com) and, after mustering the courage, contacted them. They listened attentively as I recounted my ordeal and educated me on the scam, revealing that numerous others had fallen victim to the same scheme.

Although skeptical at first, I decided to take a chance. Morphohack guided me through the process, instructing me to set up a new wallet. To my astonishment, they successfully recovered my stolen Bitcoin and transferred it to my new wallet. I was stunned, struggling to comprehend how this was possible.

I initially wanted to keep this experience private, but I realized that there may be others out there who have suffered similar losses. If you're a victim of crypto theft, I urge you to reach out to Morphohack Cyber Service. They can be contacted through their website or email. (Morphohack@cyberservices . com, Info@morphohackcyber . com) Don't give up hope, there is a way to recover your stolen crypto assets.

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JW 1 hour ago
The raw data that proves Super Rugby Pacific is currently a cut above

Your links are private if you were intending them to be shared.


URC us doing very well with it’s competitiveness given that each group has it’s own salary caps and entirely different makeups, from clubs, to provinces, to franchises and regions. One group might be teams from the most populace country with the biggest rugby base while another the smallest, with the least amount of rugby players to chose from.

On average, just about one SRP game every weekend has been decided in the last five minutes!

I would also be interested in a average clock length (don’t need to go into the whole BIP hole) showing how long the last phases are taking (because one team is trying to still alter the match points outcome in some way) to complete before the game finally ends. I don’t know if its more common this year but in general I wonder if its a stat that can show how good games are/were?

17.7%

You really had the same reversed 10 points lead % as you had lead changes after the 75th?


Some of these values while standing out numerically against each other have a much less correlative impact than some that tighter differences which might only stick out a small amount. While SRP’s ones might not necessarily be such examples (and here I’m still going off the basic principle that everyone knew this was happening, even though I was challenged about that assumption) they have had the advantage of the fixtures being were doctored even more than normal. In this instance its irrelevant whether they were doctored or not of course, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that there hasn’t been a lot of cross over of worst v best yet. Maybe it just feels like that because the worst are so much better this year? I definitely think that it is undeniable that all the bottom teams (that remain) have gotten better.


So I would be very interested in another weight graph of the games still, but regardless I don’t think it’s fair for SRP to claim anything over the other leagues yet. Certainly as I have said numerous times about the Top 14, it’s sub par compared to what it’s billed up to be, but that is the only league in this group that has promotion and relegation, which is the antitheses of a competitive league, so a trade off there.


Thank you very much for sharing your research though Dmitri, I hope you find another topic to get interested about!

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