Wallabies turn to 'old head' O'Connor for game control guidance

The Wallabies are hoping James O’Connor’s calming influence and more intent at the breakdown will spark a desperately-needed revival against European powerhouses Ireland.

Insipid losses to England and lowly-ranked Italy have left the Wallabies halfway towards a demoralising winless spring tour that would have dire ramifications ahead of next month’s 2027 Rugby World Cup draw.

Under-fire coach Joe Schmidt has drafted the England-based O’Connor into his squad after playmaker Carter Gordon aggravated a quad strain in Sunday’s 26-19 defeat to the Azzurri in Udine.

After answering an SOS from Schmidt in August, O’Connor orchestrated Australia’s incredible comeback win over the world champion Springboks on the South African high veldt.

Now teammates are backing the 36-year-old’s cool hand to again lead the Wallabies out of their alarming season-ending funk.

“It does help having ‘Rabs’ back in the squad,” centre and newly-crowned John Eales Medallist Len Ikitau said in Dublin.

“You know, older head who’s very experienced steering the boys around and obviously helping (young flyhalf) Tane (Edmed) along the way.”

Ikitau, who is also set for a much-needed return to the Wallabies midfield after missing the first three Tests of the spring tour, believes O’Connor could be the man to unlock Australia’s spluttering backline.

“As a backline, I think we can do a better job controlling where we want to play,” Ikitau said.

“Then just making sure that we’re getting opportunities to get the ball to an edge.

“We’ve got some awesome wingers, who in space are pretty hard to tackle, so just making sure that we’re able to share the load with the forwards and just taking those opportunities.”

The Wallabies have been dominated at the breakdown by England and Italy and assistant coach Tom Donnelly is expecting a vastly improved effort from the forwards against the third-ranked Irish side.

“The last two games our ball has been really slow at the breakdowns,” Donnelly said.

“That’s helped with us not creating space for our ball carriers. We just have to try and create quicker ball.

“We do that by our ball carrier being really accurate with this detail and our cleaners and then our speed to clean, to identify threats and get rid of them.

“If we can get quicker ball, all of a sudden we’ll be able to play with more space.”

Playing down end-of-year fatigue within the ranks, Ikitau described Tuesday’s training session as one of the Wallabies’ best of the year.

“Just in terms of our intent,” he said.

“We have a style, the way we want to play, and I think everyone was making sure that we played the way we want to.”

The seventh-ranked Wallabies need to beat Ireland to have any chance of claiming an all-important top-six seeding for the 2027 World Cup in Australia.

With only this Sunday’s showdown and next week’s Test against France to go before finishing his two-year reign as Wallabies coach, Schmidt will name his team to play Ireland on Thursday night.