‘I know how good Scotland are and how good we have to be’ – Joe Schmidt

Australia head coach Joe Schmidt says that the current Scotland team is the strongest he will have faced in his time in international rugby.

Schmidt coached Ireland to seven wins and one defeat against Scotland in his eight years as the architect of the nation’s rise, but feels that Gregor Townsend’s side has now hit “the sweet spot” in terms of its maturity.

“Look, I’m permanently uncomfortable,” he said when asked if the enormous praise his team has received after victories over England and Wales was making him feel a little uneasy. “I just know how good Scotland are and I know how good we’re going to have to be.

“The balance they have across the board is really impressive. Obviously, Scotland have always had a really good back row.

“I’ve have seen a lot of Finn [Russell] over the years. Blair Kinghorn’s been around for a long time. Some really good strike players. Duhan van der Merwe has been a standout, but Darcy Graham’s been electric.

“Through the midfield, our punchy Australian skipper there, Sione Tuipulotu, or Scottish as he is now. He’s done super and is pretty well known to our boys and Huw Jones is a guy who’s elusive and brings a real experience to the midfield as well. So it’s pretty hard to pinpoint a weakness.”

Schmidt also spoke about his sole loss to Scotland in 2017, after which Schmidt said the team bus taking them to Murrayfield arrived late, thereby compromising their pre-match routine.

“We were a bit late arriving that day,” he smiled. “I’ll never forget saying to [then Scotland head coach Vern Cotter], who’s a great mate of mine, that we’ve only got 26 minutes to warm up and he said: ‘People are useless, I said give them 20 (minutes)’.

“Scotland started really well and then Greig Laidlaw kicked a couple of goals at the end.

“Funnily enough, Greig is coaching Samu Kerevi and I was just talking to Greig the other day. He’s a top man.”

Schmidt is not expecting things to be much easier at Murrayfield this time around.

“Scotland play a fantastic brand of rugby,” he said. “They’re quick. During the World Cup, outside of the All Blacks, they played with more width than any other team. So you’ve got to be good across the field.”

Scotland will have to be good in every department if they are to halt Schmidt and his born again Wallabies.