Wallabies 'terrified' by Schmidt's selection policy

Australian rugby's players boss, Justin Harrison, has claimed some Wallabies are "terrified" of poor results while doubling down on his criticism of Joe Schmidt's "Russian roulette" selection methods.

Schmidt has handed out 22 new caps in his two-year tenure and has spoken regularly about the need to build depth in Australia's player pool before handing the reins to Les Kiss next season ahead of the 2027 home Rugby World Cup.

This year's demanding 15-Test schedule meant there was always going to be a need to manage player workloads.

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The Wallabies have only played that many games in a season once before, back in 2016.

But Harrison - the ex-Test lock who is now chief executive of Australia's Rugby Union Players'​ Association - believes the constant chopping and changing has gone way too far.

The Wallabies are riding a three-game losing streak heading into their season-ending clash with France in Paris on Sunday (AEDT).

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"Joe Schmidt talks about building depth, and building positional longevity, and going deep in that," Harrison said on Stan Sport's Inside Line.

"But there's a point where... stability's got to be formed at some stage through a year. And so when you start to change teams significantly, all of the time, for no real apparent reason, depth is not a good enough reason to take someone out of a Wallabies jersey and put someone else in that's terrified of the result."

Ireland's lineout - which had previously struggled in a loss to the All Blacks in Chicago - terrorised the Wallabies in Dublin.https://x.com/StanSportRugby/status/1990589010838692020?s=20

"So then your combinations are affected, you know, lineout performance against Ireland, you take away a high functioning lineout, you want to find a spot for (Tom) Hooper, so you put him in there with (Jeremy) Williams (while omitting Nick Frost)," Harrison said.

"That creates instability, which creates uncertainty for hooker, which leads to a catastrophic sort of performance in that crucial set-piece time and at the telling times."

Harrison was also bewildered by Schmidt's front-row selection.

Set-piece specialists Mike Cron and Geoff Parling recently left Schmidt's coaching team with John Ulugia and Tom Donnelly now holding those roles on tour.

Veteran Taniela Tupou started against England and Italy but was not included in the 23 at Aviva Stadium.

"Taniela Tupou played one of the best games he's played for Australia at tighthead in the scrum, stable platform, all the way through, and then he's not playing at all against Ireland," Harrison said.

"So some of those things are hard to understand. And (No's) 9 and 10, the merry-go round with James O'Connor. Only he and Joe Schmidt know what's being said between those two, so only they can truly understand it.

"But it absolutely manifests itself in all sorts of different areas of the game that are team performance, team defence, team ability to man a fightback."

O'Connor started against Ireland but has again been released from the squad to go back to the Leicester Tigers.

NEW PODCAST! Wallabies fans are restless as Joe Schmidt's side slump to another loss against Ireland. Are there green shoots?https://omny.fm/shows/rugby-world-cup-inside-line/wallabies-wake-up-call/embed?in_playlist=podcast&style=Cover

Schmidt is due to name his team to play France at 11.30pm AEDT on Thursday.

"You look left and right - well, we were here last week and we were here against the Lions, boys, let's do this again," Harrison continued, stressing the need for selection cohesion.

"Come on, Ellis Park, don't you remember (the win over the Springboks)? And you're saying it to someone possibly that wasn't there, wasn't on the field.

"So shared experience is so important for when you're trying to find a way back to the top of where you were at an earlier part of the year."

Wallabies legend Michael Hooper was also curious about how the coaching handover from Schmidt to Kiss will work.

The pair are close, having previously worked together with Ireland, and Kiss has spent time with the team in Europe in a mostly observational capacity.

Kiss will coach the Queensland Reds next season before replacing Schmidt at the helm.

"What I'm hearing is Joe is going to stay involved but from afar," Hooper said.

"So he's going to have oversight over it. But my concern is going forward, is this is a great learning opportunity (for Kiss this year)...

"The issue is the learnings and the lessons aren't being shared by the team, or the coaching staff, that are going to be there for 2027.

"So how is this part, this great learning experience, the fightbacks that the Wallabies have put up, some amazing blocks of play, some really good continuity between coach and player.

"And then that's all going to end when Joe leaves. So how is the team, how's the coaching staff, and how is Rugby Australia going to manage this transition with the players going forward?"

Kiss, the former league star, is vastly experienced as a rugby coach but mostly in Ireland and England.

"A lot of players know Les Kiss, but that's only Queensland Reds players," Hooper said.

"So how's all this merge going to happen, that's my concern... my hope is that the lessons that are happening now aren't lost, when the changeover occurs soon."