Former All Blacks fly-half Aaron Cruden does not believe that Australia should be panicking about their performance against Fiji as the British and Irish Lions Tests draw near.
The Wallabies produced an unconvincing performance against the Pacific Islanders, with head coach Joe Schmidt left frustrated by the 21-18 victory sealed by a late Harry Wilson try.
No need to panic
While many believe that Australia’s performance is a real concern for the Series, Cruden says it’s not panic station just yet, pointing to how rusty New Zealand looked in their first Test match of the year against France.
“I suppose similar to what I said with the All Blacks first Test, you don’t necessarily need to overreact, but there will be certain areas of concern for Joe Schmidt and the Wallabies,” he said on the Breakdown
“Probably just seeing how well the Lions have come together and gelled, that’s going to be, where the Wallabies possibly need to improve.
“It’s going to be an interesting series. I don’t know, who I’m sort of favouring right now.”
Meanwhile, fellow ex-All Blacks fly-half Stephen Donald pinpointed the area of the game where the Lions will have a major advantage.
“I think as everyone’s talked about and I’ve been bullish, it’s the 9-10 options for the Wallabies,” he said.
“How they allowed Fiji back into the game, it was the game management.”
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Wallabies weakness
The Wallabies have been dealt a further blow in this area of the game with Schmidt’s first-choice playmaker Lolesio ruled out of the Tests.
This left ex-All Blacks winger Jeff Wilson pondering “who steps up?” after Schmidt relied on Lolesio all last year and was the top-performing fly-half in Super Rugby.
“Well, they’re going to then have to toss up between Ben Donaldson or Tom Lynagh, who obviously haven’t got the same experience as Lolesio,” Donald replied before pinpointing this as an injury the Lions will target.
“Someone who the Lions would then apply a massive blowtorch to as far as that first Test goes.
“But when you look at the Aussies today, especially, I just thought the reasons why Fiji probably came back is that they were allowed to come back in through Australia’s game management.”
Schmidt is set to name an updated squad for the series and may include an experienced option at number ten, with current options being Donaldson, Lynagh and Tane Edmed, who combined boast just 22 caps worth of international experience.
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