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The Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has hit back at the British and Irish Lions management, insisting Australia are adhering to the tour agreement regarding the release of international players for pre-Test games and that his front-line home players were only unavailable because they were preparing to face Fiji on Sunday week.
The issue has flared up again this week after the Lions chief executive, Ben Calveley, said he expected Schmidt to release Wallaby players back to their Super Rugby franchises for their respective games against the touring team. Some fringe Wallabies are due to feature for Western Force this Saturday but it is set to be a different story for the subsequent games against the Reds, the Waratahs and the Brumbies.
Australia have a warm-up Test against Fiji in Newcastle on Sunday week which effectively clashes with all three of those Lions fixtures, due to be played inside eight days starting with the Reds game in Brisbane next Wednesday evening. With limited time in which to prepare for the best-of-three Test series, the Lions are keen to face the best-available opposition wherever possible and Calveley has also stressed the need to guarantee value for money for matchday fans.
Schmidt, however, rejects the idea that the Wallabies are reneging on a strict contractual obligation. “I’m not sure whether [coach] Andy [Farrell] was part of that discussion or whether it was just coming from the CEO but I’ve read the tours agreement and it’s having the best intention to have the highest quality players available and playing,” Schmidt told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“It’s not as specific as saying every Wallaby from a state or a club has to be available to play every game that the Lions come through on. And we play Fiji on a Sunday and the Waratahs play on a Saturday night. So it’s not like you can play Saturday and Sunday against a team like the Lions. It would be counterproductive.”
Schmidt also sought to draw a comparison with the Lions, pointing out Farrell’s first choice squad members are not required to play in every game. “There’s some serious plate spinning at the moment, trying to get ready,” he stressed. “The ambition is there’ll be some going back to the Reds, and some going back to the Waratahs. But in reality, the Lions have got their squad. Are they going to play their best team every week? That’s unlikely. So are we going to play all the same players every week?”
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The upshot is that lower-profile or recently injured Wallabies such as Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Josh Flook, Josh Canham, Seru Uru and Angus Blyth are all in line to feature against the Lions but Australia’s frontline stars will be wrapped in cotton wool. “Just about every player who will play against the Lions was in our wider squad,” insisted Schmidt. “[And] depending on how we get through these few days of training, there may be a couple of the Reds who go back from our squad again. So I think we’re working really hard to enter into the tours agreement in the most positive way we can.”
