Wallabies must kick head-start habit to break All Blacks hoodoo, says Schmidt

Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt says he is sick of watching his side give opposition teams huge head starts in Test matches, and warned more of the same will likely end in disaster against the All Blacks at Eden Park on Saturday.

Schmidt’s caution about the need for a faster start came as he named a new starting halves combination for the opening Bledisloe Cup clash, and handed Lukhan Salakaia-Loto the role of Eden Park enforcer in his first start for the Wallabies this year.

As forecast, James O’Connor was named to start at No.10 for the Wallabies, just a week after a quickfire return trip to England, and in his 50th Test, Tate McDermott was promoted to the No.9 jersey after filling for the role of bench super sub for most of the year.

Despite training with the squad in Auckland, Jake Gordon was not considered ready to meet the physical rigours required to play in a fast-paced Test, meaning Brumbies halfback Ryan Lonergan was named to make a possible Test debut from the bench.

Lonergan, 27, has played 97 Super Rugby matches and first made a Wallabies squad in 2021. Since then, 52 players have debuted – but not Lonergan, given he was stuck behind the reliable trio of Gordon, McDermott and Nic White. The retirement of White has finally opened a door for a Test debut.

In a side that also sees the returns of Nick Frost, Len Ikitau, Harry Potter and Allan Alaalatoa from injury, Max Jorgensen was also confirmed at fullback, replacing Andrew Kellaway.

Schmidt helped coach the All Blacks to wins at Eden Park, but Saturday will be the first visit as an opposing Test head coach, and he identified playing mistake-free rugby as the key to breaking the All Blacks’ streak of 51 unbeaten Tests at the Auckland venue, dating back to 1994.

“It’s going to take cohesion because you can’t afford to miss marks and turn the ball over and give the All Blacks oxygen, because they will damage you if that happens,” Schmidt said.

Under Schmidt, the Wallabies have made a habit of falling behind early in Tests, and though they’ve also followed up with stirring second-half comebacks for wins and narrow losses, the habit needs kicking for them to be any hope of winning in New Zealand, said Schmidt.

“Personally as a coach I’m sick of watching us getting behind and having to fight our way back, but I’m also incredibly admirable of the manner in which they do that,” he said.

“Against the All Blacks you can’t afford to give them that head start because they can just keep getting further away from you, particularly if we start over chasing the game and start over playing and the game becomes too loose.”

Schmidt conceded it was not ideal to have O’Connor clocking up 34,000km in air miles last week, but he disputed the suggestion that the No.10 was ever out of the selection frame, and said his bookings to fly over to connect with his new club Leicester were long-standing. O’Connor believed he was not in the selection frame for the Bledisloe series, according to informed sources.

“He’d booked his dog to go over and his partner, so they stuck with that,” Schmidt said. “He got across there, caught up with [Leicester coach] Geoff [Parling] for a couple of days, and it was always part of the plan. It was a fallow week for us, so there was a window to do it. It’s probably not ideal that there was a bit of travel in that, but it just allowed him to set himself up beyond these next two weeks.”

Schmidt said he’d opted for O’Connor as the starting five-eighth given his experience, strong form in South Africa and his existing combination with McDermott from the Reds.

Salakaia-Loto will carry the responsibility of bringing the muscle edge given Rob Valetini’s absence with injury, and with Will Skelton not re-joining the team until the second Test in Perth next week.

Salakaia-Loto was a controversial omission from the squad during the Lions series but turned in three powerful performances in tour games – for Queensland, the Australia & New Zealand Invitational XV and the First Nations and Pasifika team.

“We lost Bobby Valetini and that takes away a little bit of our carry,” Schmidt said of the selection.

“So just to give us a little bit more in the ability to get a little bit of momentum because Lukhan, he’s a big, skilful man and it allows us also to put Tom Hooper back to the side of the scrum where he’s done really well.”

Alaalatoa is on the bench, along with Angus Bell and Brandon Paenga-Amosa. Tane Edmed has been preferred on the bench ahead of Tom Lynagh.

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