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Joe Schmidt explains decision to start Noah Lolesio as Wallabies’ No.10

Noah Lolesio of the Wallabies looks on during the men's International Test match between Australia Wallabies and Wales at Allianz Stadium on July 06, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has explained the decision to give Noah Lolesio another opportunity to wear the No. 10 jersey on Saturday afternoon in Brisbane as opposed to Queenslander Tom Lynagh or utility Ben Donaldson.

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Lolesio, 24, will partner NSW Waratahs captain Jake Gordon in the halves for the third time this year. The pair started both matches against Warren Gatland’s Wales in Sydney and Melbourne before mass changes were made for the Georgia Test.

Fans on Twitter/X were quite critical of Lolesio after those wins over Wales, and other supporters expressed their strong opinions after Donaldson’s performance against Georgia at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium last month.

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Schmidt said after that 40-29 that the coaching staff would “definitely” need to go away and “think about” their options at flyhalf moving forward. Two days out from their Rugby Championship opener against South Africa, the coaches have made their call.

Lolesio will steer the Wallabies’ ship around the park in attack as their chief playmaker, while young gun Lynagh is in line for his second Test appearance after being named on the bench. Donaldson drops out of the 23 completely as the coach discussed.

“I think most teams have a 10 on the bench, maybe not a specialist per se but Noah’s had the most time in the saddle for us through training and through those first two Welsh Tests so he’s got that opportunity,” Joe Schmidt told reporters in Brisbane on Thursday.

“We lost Tom for maybe a week and a half with a hamstring injury, he’s back to 100 per cent but he had to get through this week’s training so there was a little bit of uncertainty there.

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“Ben Donaldson, he’s working really hard on his game and we’re trying to help him make sure that some of the things that he’s actually really good at get delivered consistently. He just didn’t get a good start in the Georgia game and then things didn’t flow for him.

“We just want to make sure that next time he goes in, he’s right up to speed and confident because he’s got a really good skillset.”

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4
Average Points scored
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Other big selection talking points for Australia include a debut for Western Force flanker Carlo Tizzano in the No. 7 jumper. ACT Brumbies enforcer Luke Reimer is also in line to play at Test level for the first time off the bench.

Test veteran Marika Koroibete and Paris 2024 Olympian Corey Toole have both been left out of the matchday 23 after being called into the squad for the first time this year. Nick Frost also comes into the run-ons side as a middle row partner for Lukhan Salakaia-Loto.

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But the absence of Taniela Tupou is a massive blow for the Wallabies before taking on a highly physical Springboks pack, and it wasn’t a surprise to hear it brought up at Thursday’s press conference in Brisbane’s CBD.

Tupou will miss the Test for personal reasons. Instead, Queensland Reds prop Zane Nonggorr will look to provide impact off the bench, and captain Allan Alaalatoa has been named to start in the tighthead role.

“Taniela is Taniela. He’s massively powerful. At the same time, we’ve got to be able to build depth,” Schmidt said.

“One of the things we tried to do through July, even at the risk of making 10 changes before Georgia and five changes between the Welsh Tests, is to try to grow that base.

“We’re in a very different stage of our development as compared to the Springboks and that’s always a risk, we’ve got about half as many caps and about a quarter of those belong to James Slipper.

“From that perspective, we are still going to keep trying to build and if we do lose someone, we’ve got to be able to best operate as a Wallabies squad and not be overly reliant on individual players.”

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NB 2 hours ago
Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

https://www.london.edu/think/how-claudio-ranieri-transformed-leicester-city


He jts knew how to use that deep well of knowledge accumulate over many years of management. A true Moneyball story!

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fl 2 hours ago
Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

“Two comparable achievements 15 years apart (at different clubs in different leagues) represent failure and not continued success for an elite level coach/manager? Not even a hint of consistency? Just gradual, inevitable decline? And all because he is in his sixth decade?”

Why don’t you try reading what I wrote before you start inventing a load of other random things that I didn’t say. I said “Pep hasn’t gotten better with age”. He hasn’t. I don’t think he’s got much worse, and yeah, he’s been fairly consistent over his career and has had more success than almost any other coach. But he hasn’t gotten better.


“You’ve missed that Mourinho’s early start in football was as a translator for Bobby Robson (ironically a much older manager at the time!).”

I was actually aware of that. I didn’t mention it because it wasn’t relevant to the fact that Mourinho - aged 52 - had more experience than Arteta does at 43. It also isn’t ironic that Bobby Robson was a much older manager at the time - it actually confirms by point that a lot of the top football managers used to be older than they are today.


“You suggested that Les Kiss would not be suited to an international coaching role because of his age profile…that seemed to relate to rugby”

That did relate to rugby. Let me walk you through the thread…


NB suggested that Les Kiss should become Australia head coach in 2027.

I said: “Given the drop off so many top coaches seem to experience as they get older (e.g. Jones, Gatland) Kiss could be a riskier appointment than you’d think!”

NB said: “Drawing a parallel with the NFL and NBA, plenty of coaches stay well into their 70’s”

I said: “Not all sports are going the same way though” then gave the example of football.


The example of football was introduced in order to make the point that the age profile of managers is not the same in every sport. If you had read the thread you were replying to you would know this!

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