Schmidt backs Gordon and Donaldson despite narrow Nations Championship loss to Ireland

Joe Schmidt offered a measured defence of his fly-halves after Australia fell 33-31 to Ireland in a Nations Championship match at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium, a result that extended Ireland’s winning run against the Wallabies to six straight Tests.

Carter Gordon started at No. 10 for the first time on Australian soil in almost three years, putting in a 57-minute shift before leaving the field with cramp. Ben Donaldson, returning to international rugby for the first time since the Lions Series finale on 2 August last year, came on to replace him and had a chance to snatch the win with a penalty in the final play, only to push it wide right.

Schmidt was quick to look beyond that miss when speaking to reporters after the game. “I thought Carter, he split them up the middle. He’s a good running threat. He ran the game, he drove the players around I thought really well. He runs a lot of the play that we create and I thought he did a really good job of it,” the Wallabies coach said.

On Donaldson, Schmidt acknowledged the difficult circumstances the replacement faced. “In the second half we didn’t have the ball to play with. We were often defending for long periods and he didn’t get the opportunity to quite open the game up in the same way, but I thought there were a couple of times he did it really well.”

Schmidt also pointed to a defensive contribution from Donaldson that could easily be forgotten amid the scrutiny of his late kick. “He had to make a tackle in behind the line and it was either he had to make the tackle or they score and he delivered that, Dono, as well. They are things that might get overlooked when you’re looking at a couple of kicks at the end of the game.”

Gordon operated in a new-look halves pairing alongside Ryan Lonergan, while Donaldson combined with Tate McDermott for the majority of the second half. Schmidt was candid about the broader ambition behind the selection, adding: “It’s a position that we’re really trying to build.”

The Wallabies had shown genuine promise before the game slipped away, with tries from Dylan Pietsch and Jock Campbell giving a record crowd at Allianz Stadium reason for optimism. Ireland’s win, however, means the Wallabies have not beaten the Irish since 2018 — a run that has coincided with two Six Nations titles for Andy Farrell’s side and a 46-19 hammering in Dublin last November.