Australia head coach Joe Schmidt fires fierce warning to Andy Farrell's Lions ahead of next year's tour... and admits he's looking forward to a 'tempest'

The Lions will travel to Australia for next year's eagerly-anticipated Test seriesJoe Schmidt has been tasked with leading Australia's revival ahead of the LionsThe former Ireland and All Blacks coach believes Australia have time to improve 

Joe Schmidt knows there is a storm coming in a year’s time, but Australia’s new head coach has launched his latest salvage operation with a timely warning to the Lions and their confident ‘red army’.

12 months from now, Andy Farrell’s squad will have played their first tour match in Perth and arrived in Brisbane for game two against the Reds. Their target is series victory and such is the plight of the Wallabies – and rugby in general Down Under – that many around the home nations consider success to be a formality, with a whitewash regarded as a distinct possibility.

However, after the second coming of Eddie Jones ended in a pool-stage exit from the World Cup, a toxic post-mortem, bitter recriminations and a root-and-branch overhaul, there is a new mood of hope.

Schmidt was lured across the Tasman Sea after helping the All Blacks rally from a state of utter disarray, all the way to the World Cup Final in Paris, where they lost by a point to the Springboks. The man who previously worked wonders with Ireland now has a new mission.

The immediate task is a two-match series against Wales, but the main event on the horizon is the showdown with the Lions – a once-in-a-generation opportunity to galvanise a sport which has been declining in this part of the world.

Joe Schmidt knows there is a storm coming in a year’s time when the Lions travel to Australia

Schmidt was lured across the Tasman Sea after helping the All Blacks rally from a state of utter disarray, all the way to the World Cup Final in Paris

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has been tasked with leading the Lions charge in Australia

Schmidt knows the Wallabies are seen as easy prey at present, but in an interview with a small group of visiting UK journalists in Coogee, an ocean-side suburb of Sydney, he delivered a message of under-stated defiance.

‘We've had four great days, relationship building and putting in place a few fundamentals,’ he said of his first hands-on duties since being appointed as the successor to Jones. ‘But it’s not beating a Lions team. Losing 40-6 to Wales in the World Cup, who were beaten by Argentina, who were hammered by the All Blacks – I understand why people are saying or thinking what they're thinking up north.

‘The thing that I'd say to those people is that it would be it is a risk to write the Australians off. In my experience, growing up across the Tasman, every time you wrote them off, they catch you out. We’ve got so much work to do between now and then, but a year will give us time to build a bit of cohesion and continuity.’

Having spent years coaching in Europe, with Clermont Auvergne, Leinster and Ireland, Schmidt is clear about the scale of the task – the first major objective in a four-year cycle which will culminate in a home World Cup. He will lock horns with his former assistant, Andy Farrell, who is sure to have at his disposal a squad awash with supreme pedigree and firepower.

‘It will be some sort of tempest,’ he said of the Lions tour. ‘I am not expecting a gentle breeze! That first half England played against Ireland (in the Six Nations); the number of line-breaks they made… That was the best England I have seen for a while. You’ve got that. Scotland; Glasgow winning the URC and the way they won it, having to go away. The strength and depth there is building well.

‘While Wales struggled through the Six Nations, I still think they have some really good players that will contribute to a strong Lions team. I’d rather you didn’t bring it up – I have my head full of Wales at the moment!’

Schmidt had his heart set on retiring to Lake Taupo, in the north island of New Zealand. He wanted to fish, play golf and spend time with his family. But Rugby Australia made their approach and the lure of the Wallaby job proved too great to ignore. He was driven in part by feeling ‘embittered’ about how the All Blacks were denied another global title by contentious officiating in the final, but also by a bigger-picture sense of what is good for the health of the game at large.

It turns out that other Kiwis felt the same. ‘I'm a rugby fan and I just feel like rugby is out of balance if the Wallabies aren't at the top table,’ he said. ‘Even the All Black boys, the messages I got… they were also saying that we need our corner to be stronger now. I don't have a magic formula to make that happen. But I know how hard I work.’

Schmidt (left) and Farrell (right) previously worked together at Ireland

His part of the grand revival project is to create a winning Wallabies team, but Schmidt recognises how that in turn can help union compete better in a crowded sporting marketplace. ‘How do you grow it? One of the ways it happened in Ireland was you get the flagship up and sailing,’ he added.

‘Kids want to aspire to be part of a similar ship. I have been into schools and clubs, but that is not as powerful as the Lions coming. Rugby is genuinely a global game and that is something our code competitors can’t compete with.

‘The Lions is such a big event. Rugby World Cup is such a big event. If we can be competitive in those events, that is so tangible for the hearts and minds you are trying to capture.’

This is the main battleground for rugby union in Australia, where league and Aussie Rules Football (AFL) have become so dominant, along with cricket, which has a nationwide footprint. Last Wednesday, Melbourne hosted game two of league’s State of Origin series and a midweek crowd of 90,000 were drawn to the towering MCG, to watch New South Wales beat Queensland on a glitzy occasion, complete with pre-match light shows, pyrotechnics and music.

Meanwhile, the Sydney Swans are attracting sell-out crowds of 52,000 as they strive to claim the AFL title, just as Rugby Australia are recovering from the after-shocks of the Jones era and World Cup debacle, the collapse of the Melbourne Rebels and cross-code player defections.

These are some of the headaches for Phil Waugh, the new RA chief executive who played for the Waratahs back in the glory days when they drew average crowds of 37,000 and won titles galore.

Despite this backdrop, Waugh was optimistic as he echoed Schmidt’s view that union can wield a trump card which rival sports here don’t possess. ‘The international component is a difference for us and ultimately we'll win that battle for participation and relevance,’ he said.

Schmidt admitted his Australia team will have to make plenty of improvements before the Lions

Australia were knocked out of the Rugby World Cup following a torrid campaign last year

‘That’s why the Lions series is so important to us. When you get 40,000 tourists coming to support it, you capture the city that the game's in. If we do well, all Australians will be interested. A lot of the work we're doing now and the appointment of Joe Schmidt is about setting ourselves up for the importance of the Lions series and then we have to go deep in the 2027 World Cup. The challenge for us is going to be, “Do we have enough time to get it right between now and those events?”.

‘Joe has got a short runway. It’s not ideal – he would probably want a bit more time – but equally he came into the All Blacks in 2022 before the World Cup and had an impact. I think there is a good comparison around the timeline.

‘Joe is really excited to come to Australia. We’ve got good athletes – poor performances but good athletes. If you can come into the Australian system, set up the right team, create the right culture, then have the Lions as the light on the hill; it's really attractive.’

Waugh is convinced that the community game in Australia remains strong. His wish is to reconnect latent grass-roots support with the professional teams, as well as win the battle for talented school-leavers who currently choose a career in league or AFL. But union initiatives require union investment, which in turn requires a spike in income. Luckily, one is on the way.

‘The Lions is certainly a big deal,’ said Waugh. ‘It’s a really important tool to drive revenue. Our goal is to be debt free. We’ve got an $80 million (debt) facility, to keep the game alive and set ourselves up for success in Lions and World Cups.

‘We want to be debt-free by the end of the Lions, then we go into a new broadcast cycle in 2026 to 2030 and we want to be sustainable, which would allow us to bank the money from the 2027 Rugby World Cup. I'm hoping that we'll be able to turn around our fortunes.’

With Schmidt on board, Australia are convinced that they can be ready for the Lions ‘tempest’

The Lions were beaten by reigning world champions South Africa on their last tour in 2021

On Wednesday this week, all major stakeholders in Australian rugby will meet to finalise a strategic plan for the so-called ‘golden decade’ leading up the Olympics in Brisbane in 2032. It is a rare chance to reboot the sport and plans have been discussed for a union equivalent of the popular State of Origin model.

Once RA have worked out a team to replace the lost Rebels and face the Lions in Melbourne on July 22 next year – ‘whether it’s Australia A, Pasifika, Melbourne, we’ll create a good opponent’ – they will prepare for a record-breaking Test at the MCG the following weekend. The iconic arena holds more than 100,000 people and there won’t be a spare seat.

So can that fixture match the fervour of Origin and transport union into the Australian psyche again? ‘It will be bigger than that,’ said Waugh. ‘When you’ve got Australia against 40,000 Lions fans, I am very confident that next year’s Lions Test at the MCG will surpass the atmosphere at that State of Origin game. That’s not disparaging rugby league, it’s just about the enormity of the event with passionate supporters on either side.’

This is the vision which is sustaining Australia’s embattled rugby union establishment through this protracted period of turbulence. With Schmidt on board, they are convinced that they can be ready for the Lions ‘tempest’ – and that the almighty storm will restore the code’s exalted former status.