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The Bledisloe is gone for another year and with it a chance of clinching The Rugby Championship. It is familiar tale, where it seems like the Wallabies are building into the year before running into an All Blacks assault. Throughout 2025, Schmidt has been forced to embed new play makers during their campaign due to injury and player availability. Tane Edmed was the last man standing at number 10 for the Wallabies.
Edmed was given the chance to lead the vanguard of the Wallabies’ next generation of flyhalfs amidst James O’Connor’s impending departure to Leicester. Schmidt seems to prefer Edmed’s hard-nosed style, unafraid to take on the line and defend in the front line. Despite Ben Donaldson returning from injury after a strong Super Rugby campaign with the Force, he wasn’t been included in the squad for the Bledisloe series.
It presented the perfect opportunity to see whether Edmed had the game management and temperament to run a side at international level. His previous outings against Argentina have been patchy, forcing Schmidt to lean on O’Connor in the first Bledisloe with Edmed left on the bench. It meant that O’Connor had to complete a round the world tour to England and back to be available for the test. Schmidt has come and said he is backing the youth, but on form had no choice but to recall O’Connor for the biggest test of the year with the Rugby Championship still on the line. The Wallabies were 74 minutes away from winning the first Bledisloe.
The decision to start Edmed for Bledisloe II didn’t come from the clouds. O’Connor is 35 years old, and spent the majority of the Super season coming off the bench for the Crusaders. The win in South Africa earned him the starting role, but Schmidt has to start think about succession planning.
Edmed did not cover himself in glory, but also found little support in his senior team-mates. In difficult conditions with the rain pelting down and the forward pack going backwards in the scrum, Edmed tried to get the team going. The Wallabies attack shape actually looked pretty good in the first half, with Edmed feeding his outside backs who were able to get on the outside of the All Blacks defence. Then it all fell apart. Wayward passes, dropped balls and missed kicks for touch crushed the Wallabies momentum under a barrage of ruck penalties. He will learn from that.
Veteran Wallabies play maker Quade Cooper, no stranger to criticism himself, took to X to vent his confusion about the Wallabies tactics and take aim at the young half. “My thing with the wallabies game is simple. We have such a talented team now but watching it I’m not sure I’m super clear on the system or shape we are playing? It’s hard to understand”, he said in one post. Replying to a question about Tane’s performance, he replied “I don’t think he should be on a test match pitch if i’m honest."
After a wave of online outrage, Cooper clarified his comments, posting that “I just don’t think he should be playing test match rugby for Australia right now. If he’s the best that we have in the most pivotal position in the game in all of Australia. Tell me one top tier country he could replace their top 2 10’s?"
Cooper then issued an apology directly to Tane, but his comments perhaps reflect the general feelings towards Tane’s performance. For all the talk that he needs to be “eased” into test rugby, the reality is he’s 25, with five seasons of Super Rugby under his belt. He’s no rookie.
With the northern tour fast approaching, Schmidt needs to back his young 10 and give him time in the saddle, the same time that has been afforded to Noah Lolesio who despite given every opportunity, hadn’t cemented his spot before injury derailed his season. In return, Tane will have to repay the faith by putting together worthy performances.
The international arena isn’t the place to build confidence without the weight of expectation, it is the time to step up and test yourself against the world’s best. If Edmed is truly the long-term answer, then he has to start showing it now, not in six months’ time.