Schmidt needs time to deliver Wallabies progress, says assistant Fisher

Australia assistant coach Laurie Fisher has called for patience ahead of the Wallabies’ back-to-back Rugby Championship clashes with Argentina after opening their campaign with consecutive losses against world champions SA.

The Joe Schmidt-coached outfit — second best to Rassie Erasmus' side in Brisbane and Perth — travel to South America to face a Pumas squad that started their competition with a win and a loss against the All Blacks in New Zealand.

Those results leave Schmidt’s team rooted to the bottom of the standings ahead of the clashes in La Plata and Santa Fe, with Fisher believing the New Zealander needs time to implement the changes required to make the Wallabies competitive.

“At the moment, we’re six training weeks in under Schmidt,” he said. “So that’s not a lot, is it?

“Six training weeks [is not long], when you look at sides that have had a particular style of play or game plan for years, and there is a significant change from where we’ve been previously, particularly in our attacking game.

“We just want to see progress, we want to win games, and we feel we go into every game believing and expecting that we’ll win that game. It won’t always happen, but we’ve just got to be patient.”

Schmidt has been handed the task of rebuilding a demoralised Wallabies set-up ahead of 2025’s British & Irish Lions tour of Australia while the country is also due to host the Rugby World Cup in 2027.

The former Ireland coach took over from Eddie Jones after a disastrous World Cup campaign in 2023, when the Australians were eliminated in the group phase, while the country’s Super Rugby Pacific franchises have also struggled in recent seasons.

“I don’t think there’s anything in our game that we can tick off and say that that’s world-class at this point in time,” said Fisher.

“We haven’t had an above 50% [winning] season in Super Rugby across all teams since 2006. So I understand where we are.

“Ideally, if we can have four Super Rugby teams all have winning seasons, and that transfers into quantity and quality at the next level.

“At the moment, we’re addressing at the top level. I know the Super Rugby coaches will be working super hard to make sure next season is successful.

“We get a combination of those two, and then we’ll start growing better from the ground up as well, and that’s what it takes.”

Reuters