(Reuters) – Australia coach Joe Schmidt was not getting carried away with thoughts of a first Grand Slam tour in 40 years despite the Wallabies thrashing Wales 52-20 on Sunday to back up their last-gasp win over England.
The progress Australia have made under Schmidt this year was clearly evident in Cardiff when the Wallabies scored 21 points while a man down after centre Samu Kerevi had been sent off for a dangerous tackle just after halftime.
The New Zealander was loathe to take anything for granted ahead of next weekend’s trip to Murrayfield to play Scotland, however, let alone the final match of the tour against Ireland in Dublin.
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“Too far away to contemplate, probably,” Schmidt said of the chance of emulating the 1984 Wallabies by beating all four home nations.
“I’ve got massive respect for Scotland. I think they will be very tough. They play a fast game. They put massive pressure on at the breakdown ….
“And we certainly haven’t looked as far as Dublin, that’s always going to be really tough for us on a six-day turnaround. I’ll put that on the back unit, definitely.”
On Sunday, the Wallabies picked up where they left off in their 42-37 win over England last week with some brilliant attacking play to run up an early 19-0 lead at the Millennium Stadium.
Wales, who effectively dumped Australia out of last year’s World Cup with a 40-6 win, rallied to narrow the lead to six points at the break and things looked bleak for the Wallabies when Samu was shown a yellow card, later upgraded to red.
Schmidt, who suggested Australia might appeal Kerevi’s red card, admitted to a few nervy moments.
“I thought the composure was really good, because at 19-13 you know, you can start to feel that you’re suffocating,” he said.
“I felt we lost our shape, even toward the end of that first half … we got a bit ragged … just lost our way a bit.
“So it was nice to get some momentum back in the second half, and I felt in the last quarter, we put some good stuff together again.
“Hopefully, we can build on what we’ve done in these first two games and go again next week,” he added.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney in Sydney; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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