Wallabies head coach Joe Schmidt has thrown his full support behind new captain Fraser McReight, but has admitted it isn’t an ideal time to hand him the captaincy for the first time.
Back-rower McReight now becomes the fifth man to lead Australia in a Test match since Schmidt took over as head coach last year, and steps into the role following the injury to incumbent skipper Harry Wilson.
McReight has been a mainstay in the Wallabies side in the past year, featuring in 13 of the past 17 Tests since Schmidt became head coach. He also has 30 Test caps to his name at the time of writing.
‘It was almost a continuity’
While McReight is an integral part of the current Wallabies squad, he has never officially been named as match-day captain until the departure of Wilson last week, but Schmidt feels his leadership in the win over the Boks will enable him to succeed in this new role.
“Part of the decision was that he finished the game last week as captain,” Schmidt said when explaining his decision to give McReight the armband. “So it was almost a continuity that I felt he finished the game well.
“He was captain of the Australian under-20s when he was in the age group arena. He is a quiet leader, we don’t need someone who’s uh remmonstrating or saying a lot. We just need someone who’s going to demonstrate the right performance on the field that other people can follow. And I think Fraser has demonstrated that.”
Being given the captaincy seemed to bring the best out of the back-rower, though. He led the way for tackles across the game with 20 across his shift, and also notched two turnovers for good measure.
But the lack of serious captaincy experience could be viewed as a negative for McReight heading into the Test in Cape Town, especially with the Boks out for blood after last weekend’s result, and Schmidt admitted it isn’t an ideal situation in which to be handed the armband for the first time.
“Allan Alaalatoa and James Slipper, two previous captains for us in the last year, both being out injured, Harry being out injured with Liam Wright being out injured – I wouldn’t say it was a process of elimination because that’s not fair to Fraser, but it was probably not ideal that he’s a first time captain for us but at least got a little bit of experience in the back end of the game when Harry went off.”