'We will have to take a step up from Lions series', says Schmidt

WALLABIES coach Joe Schmidt says he would love to be a fly on the wall when Rassie Erasmus has his coaching meetings with innovative assistants Tony Brown and Felix Jones.

- MIKE GREENAWAY

Schmidt, a New Zealander, knows former All Black Brown well, while as director of rugby at the Ireland Rugby Union, he regularly met with Munster men in Erasmus, Jones, and defence coach Jerry Flannery.

Erasmus reported to Schmidt when he coached Munster in 2016 and 2017.

“I am an admirer of Tony; he is very innovative, so are Felix and Rassie. The three of them must have some interesting coaching meetings where they come up with good ideas. If anybody has a recording of those meetings, I'd love to get them,” Schmidt laughed.

“But for us, we are a little bit earlier in our time as a group to be focusing on anything but getting the fundamentals right, and not trying and push the boundaries too much.

Erasmus, of course, pushes bound-

aries every week. Schmidt is mostly okay with it.