With a plethora of knowledge on how Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt coaches, the Springbok management won’t take the Australians lightly in any sense, and have prepared themselves for a massive battle when the two sides meet in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Saturday.
Assistant coach Jerry Flannery, who worked with Schmidt while he was with Rassie Erasmus at Munster and Schmidt was the Irish national coach, spoke at length on Tuesday about the influence that Schmidt has and how they respected the way he coached.
Direct rugby with “an awful lot of detail” is how Flannery described it, with the breakdown key in the way the Wallabies will build up momentum ahead of the test match.
“We played them last year when Joe Schmidt came in and we were aware of, from when he worked in Ireland and the work he'd done with New Zealand, we were aware of his kind of philosophy and the way he plays and you could see a lot of that,” Flannery said.
“DIRECT RUGBY WITH A LOT OF DETAIL”
“But you could just see it developing from last year into this year and I think that they play some really direct rugby with an awful lot of detail. And the breakdown is a massive, massive area of their game.”
Flannery said if you take the improvement in the Wallaby team since the Rugby World Cup in 2023, there was a lot that had improved and this certainly is an Australian team on the up, therefore they had to be taken very seriously as opposition this weekend.
“ I think if you look at it from a timeline, when they were at the last World Cup, they looked a little bit rudderless. And when Joe came in, he's a brilliant coach. His level of detail that he brings is phenomenal.
“I saw the impact that he had in Ireland by making players play much, much higher than their perceived capacity. I think he's come in and he's got Australia firing.”
Flannery added that he wasn’t surprised that the Wallabies came close to winning the test series against the Lions, even though they were written off before the start of the tour.
“I wasn't surprised because I knew they were better than they showed in the first test. I think they were a lot more confrontational. They were obviously massively disappointed to lose the second test, but they were right in the mix.
“I think that the narrative that's out there now is that Australian rugby is on the up and they'll be looking to target us and try and keep building that.”
SKELTON, TUPOU AND VALENTINI MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Flannery added while Australia will look to use the same niggle tactics with Will Skelton and Rob Valentini this weekend, along with Taniela Tupou, the Boks won’t be necessarily changing their defensive system to counter this.
“Our system won't change much, but what you do is you'll emphasise certain areas a little bit more and I think when you bring in Tupou and you bring in Valentini and you bring in Skelton, they're massive ball carriers and they can give you huge momentum which then feeds into the breakdown narrative and they get quicker balls. So that was obviously a big part of our preparations. I suppose that they also give them a little bit more of a confrontational edge outside of play.”
PRAISE FOR RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP
Flannery praised the Rugby Championship and said it was wide open this year, with the Boks relishing their chance to test themselves against their Southern Hemisphere rivals.
“I think it's a phenomenal competition because you look back on last year and I think Argentina were like the dark horses that came out of nowhere and shocked New Zealand and they beat us as well. So, I think there's no weak team in the Championship. That is it.
“I suppose last year, if I was to look at it objectively now, the fact that Joe Schmidt had only just taken over after the World Cup meant that the Wallabies probably started slowly and we benefited from that because we played them early in the Championship. I don't think that's going to be the case now, but we want to play the best teams when they're at their best. With all due respect to Georgia and the Barbarians, we want to be playing the best teams in the world because that's how you get better.”
The Wallabies will name their side on Thursday.
Len's double secured a famous win back in 2021 against the Boks ⚡️
— Wallabies (@wallabies) August 13, 2025
NEXT MATCH
🆚 Springboks
🗓️ Sunday August 17 | 1:10am AEST
🏟️ Emirates Airline Park, Johannesburg
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