Australia coach Joe Schmidt feels more pressure going into Sunday’s clash with ailing Wales following the epic win over England, while the decision to drop centre Joseph Suaalii to the bench allows the rugby league recruit to “take a breath”.
The Wallabies scored a try with the last play of the game to edge England 42-37 at Twickenham after they lost five of their six fixtures in the Rugby Championship to finish last.
They now come up against a Wales side on a run of 10 consecutive defeats and Schmidt says with his side now expected to win, the week has a different feel.
“I feel under more pressure than last week,” Schmidt told reporters. “Nobody expected us to win but expectation shifts when you’re up against a team on a losing run.”
Lock Will Skelton and prop Allan Alaalatoa come back into the side to face Wales, while the return of Samu Kerevi to earn a 50th cap means Suaalii, who played his first game of professional rugby union at Twickenham after switching from rugby league, drops to the bench.
“It was a whirlwind for Joseph the last two weeks,” Schmidt conceded. “So for him to just be able to take a breath and watch a bit and then enter the game, I think he’s got a great opportunity to change it up a bit for us.”
Schmidt is looking forward to the impact inside centre Kerevi can have.
“Samu is a high impact player. He’s a handful to defend against. We want a really solid game from him and the ability to challenge the line, and at the same time to be really accurate in what he does do.”
Wales may be on a lengthy losing run, which includes two defeats in Australia in July, but Schmidt believes they have been competitive this year.
“Both those games were tight in Sydney and Melbourne. And this time last year Wales put 40 points on the Wallabies (at the Rugby World Cup). It’s not like they have (become) a really bad team,” he said.
“They got very close to a number of sides in the Six Nations. It was 16-14 to England, 27-26 to Scotland and they lost by one score to Fiji last week.”
