A Schmidt sitdown & rugby's American dream

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Sam Bruce (0:31)

Hello and welcome back to another edition of ESPN Scrum Reset at Sam Bruce, back in the Schmidt house. We're Christy Doran. Christy, we've had a full start here today. We've finally overcome some technical difficulties. I've had to go and whack on the puffer vests, and as producer, shooter extraordinaire, Laurie Huresh has just quipped. So that means rugby's back, right? If you're seeing the puffer vests out and about, RMs are on. What else we got? The chinos, we're ready and we're ready to rip in.

Christy Doran (0:58)

Good to see you, good to see you in the flesh. And yes, you do look peak rugby. So do I. As you routinely tell me though, one of us grew up in the country and that certainly wasn't me, was it?

Sam Bruce (1:10)

Was not, mate. I'd like to see you get you out there at one point and just get you in a yard full of 40 odd steers and see how you'd work your way through them. And if you'd come out unscathed, but we'll kick that down the road a little way, because it's been a big day in Australian rugby and world rugby, I guess. You've come from Allianz this morning, where Stan and Nine agreed or revealed their partnership for the upcoming World Cups, men's and women's both, what have we got, women's this year and in 2029, 2027, obviously the men's as well. And then I managed to get over about an hour later with you to see Joe Schmidt sit down with us for the first time this year in a broader capacity. We've spoken about how he'd only spoken with Stan so far this year and classic Joe was 25 to 30 minutes of saying a lot without saying anything at all.

Christy Doran (2:02)

Yeah, it was funny. Darren Walton, who great, great journalist for AAP Australia Associated Press, he quit when we went in there. Look, Joe, six, seven years ago, Michael Checker invited a few of us over to his place. He offered to put on a Barbie at the end of it and, and a couple of beers. And here we are at Rugby Australia instead. Every now and again, you get the opportunity to have a bit more of a less formal environment. But we had Eddie Jones and two years ago, two years ago at a pub at Captain Cook.

Sam Bruce (2:34)

Where he told us we weren't being tough enough.

Christy Doran (2:37)

Indeed. He also, I think they bought us a round of drinks. He didn't have anything to drink on that occasion. And then today, yeah, we caught up with Joe, but it was, I don't want to come across as a wet blanket immediately in this podcast, but we walked away and we thought, what did we actually find out there? Last time we were checking with Eddie, you get a little nugget.

Sam Bruce (2:59)

Dave Rea would give you a bit too.

Christy Doran (3:01)

Yeah, and Rens as well. And on this occasion, you come out and there's probably more questions than answers because you talk about the seven situation and Nick Wright, what a battle that's been throughout the year. He proceeded to name about seven or eight blankers. And to be fair, a lot of them are in good form. Charlie Gamble had his, and we sat next to each other on Friday nights, going between the Waratahs and the Reds, and Gamble McWright was neck and neck, spitting hairs.

Sam Bruce (3:28)

It was reminiscent of Warby Croft without the blood.

Christy Doran (3:31)

I don't think we saw any blood between those two on the weekend, but he spoke about Luke Reimer, about Rory Scott, whose name came up a couple of times. And that continued to the Nines, where he thought Henry Robinson had had a good year for the Force, and he has in the last two or three games that he started. Kalani Thomas, who's actually been excellent for the Reds off the bench, but these guys aren't going to be in the Nines for the Lions. And so you hope for a couple of nuggets there, that you can go in and write about them. But there was no discussion around the Hookers, and there's more than half a dozen who would be thinking, where a chance here to take on the Lions in the number two jersey? The number ten still seems like it's completely up in the air at the moment. And I mentioned James O'Connor and the fact that he's spoken to him recently, but of course, Noah, Ben and Tom. And unfortunately, Noah's now probably going to miss at least a week after his scare weekend. Tom Leiner had a head knock. Ben Dyson hardly saw the ball. I thought the biggest, and you asked a gem of a question, maybe we'll come to that in a moment, but the one little nugget that he helped confirm from my perspective is Pete Samu's going to be coming back. Will he take on the Lions? I think it'll be maybe to come too soon because-