Australia coach Joe Schmidt is not concerned about rules prohibiting some of his key foreign-based players from lining up against England at Twickenham on Saturday, saying he is happy to deal with the cards dealt him.
The test falls outside World Rugby’s window for the release of players and Australia therefore must do without several European-based players, like flyhalf James O’Connor, lock Will Skelton, loose forward Tom Hooper and centre Len Ikitau.
“We always try to favour home-based players anyway,” Schmidt told a press conference on Thursday.
“We knew that beforehand. It was no different last year. We were in the same position last year and didn’t have everyone available.
“It’s not really a distraction for us, it’s an opportunity. You often get dealt a set of cards and while you may shuffle the deck a little bit or try to steal a card from somewhere else, if those cards aren’t available, you shuffle what you’ve got and try to put out your best hand,” he added.
Ikitau is on a short-term deal at Exeter before returning to Australia next year, while Hooper signed for the club this season, but they cannot play even though their new clubmate Immanuel Feyi-Waboso will be on the wing for England on Saturday.
“I guess if you’re going to choose to play in a foreign competition, they create the boundaries of that competition. So, you have to play by their rules, and World Rugby has very clear rules on when players who are selected for international teams have to be made available,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt added his biggest concern was the potential fatigue for his players.
“We’ve done a lot of travel. I think we have 15 test matches across 22 weeks, with nine countries and 10 different time zones,” he said.
Australia played Fiji in a warm-up test before the British & Irish Lions tour, then the Rugby Championship and an international in Japan last week.
It was a scrappy game that the Wallabies won 19-15.
“To be honest, I thought we were probably more conservative than we usually are. It was very slippery conditions, and I thought we didn’t probably play as much as we could have,” Schmidt said.
Australia will follow Saturday’s clash at Twickenham with tests against Italy, Ireland, and France.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by xx)
