Laurie Fisher is happy with the progress which the Wallabies have made under the guidance of head coach Joe Schmidt and expects them to continue improving in 2025.
The experienced Fisher currently serves as the Wallabies’ forwards coach and was the first staff member who Schmidt appointed to his coaching group when he took over the coaching reins in 2024.
Schmidt faced a tricky assignment after replacing Eddie Jones as Australia’s head coach. Under Jones’ mentorship, the Wallabies endured an annus horribilis in 2023 as they won just two out of nine Tests played and failed to reach the Rugby World Cup’s play-offs for the first time in the history of the global showpiece.
Made a fine start under Schmidt
The Wallabies made a bright start to their 2024 campaign as they won back-to-back home Tests against Wales and also beat Georgia in Australia but things went pear-shaped in the Rugby Championship as they only registered one victory and suffered five defeats in that competition.
Things could only get better on their Grand Slam tour of the United Kingdom and they did well to beat England and Wales in their first two Tests but followed that up by losing against Scotland and Ireland.
Despite those defeats, the Wallabies were competitive in both those encounters and Fisher is convinced they are moving in the right direction.
“We’re a long way from where we need to be, but I think we’re on an upward curve,” he told the Canberra Times. “A lot of that is the head coach Joe Schmidt has done a wonderful job in getting us a staff and a player group together and setting a direction.
“We’re hopeful that in 2025, there will be continued growth for us.”
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Fisher is in his second stint as a Wallabies assistant coach as Jones discarded him from his role after he also served as the Wallabies’ forwards coach as part of Dave Rennie’s coaching staff in 2022.
The 66-year-old is also a former Australia U21s head coach, having also spent time in different coaching capacities with the Brumbies, Munster and Gloucester.
His optimism regarding the Wallabies’ fortunes is not a new message as he called for patience under Schmidt’s coaching methods during last year’s Rugby Championship.
“I don’t think there’s anything in our game that we can tick off and say that’s world-class at this point,” said Fisher at the time. “We’re still in the process of working on everything.
‘We’ve got a whole-of-game approach’
“Joe’s got an attacking plan in the way he wants to play the game…I don’t think we’re in a position to say, ‘Well, we’ll just work on that this week’ but we’ve got a whole-of-game approach.
“We need to make sure that each coach has identified areas that are going to get us to where we need to go, and we work diligently on those over the rest of the year.”
Fisher was convinced the Wallabies were making inroads into turning things around under Schmidt as they familiarised themselves with his system and although that did not happen immediately during the Rugby Championship, they certainly turned a corner during their end-of-year tour and will be determined to continue down that road in 2025.
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/wallabies-progress-under-joe-schmidt-receives-blunt-verdict-from-laurie-fisher
