What Australia made of Scotland amid Joe Schmidt's Lions squad call as Harry Wilson confirms snow rumour

Australia head coach Joe Schmidt labelled Scotland “a very good team” in the wake of the Wallabies’ 27-13 defeat at Murrayfield and admitted that he expects to see a number of them again in British and Irish Lions colours next summer.

The Scots put in an impressive performance to sign off 2024 in one of their best results of the season. With the Lions due to tour Australia in 2025, Schmidt is braced for further examinations from some of Scotland’s top players - although he stopped short of naming those he expected to be at the forefront of their coach Andy Farrell’s mind.

Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe, Josh Bayliss and Finn Russell crossed the whitewash for Scotland - with the vast majority of the team putting in impressive performances.

Scotland's Duhan van der Merwe skips through the Australia rearguard during the win over the Wallabies. | SNS Group / SRU

“I've known Gregor [Townsend, Scotland head coach] and a number of those players for a long time, and I think you get to a sweet spot with a team, and I think they're in pretty much their sweet spot,” said Schmidt, the former boss of Ireland.

“They've got guys - the maestro [Finn Russell] might be 32 - but the other guys, there's a lot of guys between 25 and 30 who've accumulated the right amount of experience, the right amount of cohesion playing together for a long enough period of time that's going to make them pretty tough to beat.

“Scotland will contribute, I've no doubt, a number of players [to the Lions tour]. I know Faz well, and I'm not trying to pick his team, by the way. I just think there's some guys who played really well in that game today. But also, two weeks ago, they scored a scorching try and got brought back. And probably the South African scrum was the difference, potentially, on the day. So, yeah, they're a tough team.”

When pressed if Scotland captain Tuipulotu - born in Australia - would be part of the squad, Schmidt smiled and replied: “Big ask. I think there are some really good players around. As I said, it's not for me to name anyone. I'd obviously be a bit of a fan of Bundee Aki. Olly Lawrence has had a good year. Henry Slade's got great experience. I thought Huw Jones, as well as Sione, are a good one-two in their midfield for Scotland.”

Australia head coach Joe Schmidt was impressed by many of the Scottish players. | SNS Group

Australia’s preparation was hampered by Storm Bert and injury call-offs close to gameday, but Schmidt did not use it as an excuse. “We've got to be able to cope with an interrupted build-up and still deliver on the day,” he added, “and to be fair to the players, I felt they still delivered a very good performance against a very good team. Just that very good's not good enough against Scotland at the moment, because they're a very good team.”

The Wallabies captain Harry Wilson admitted that it was true that this weekend was the first time he and many of his team-mates had seen snow. “There was a fair few of us,” Wilson revealed. “I think I was included there, seeing it actually snowing. We're all pretty excited about it - I don't think Joe was!

“It obviously distracted us a bit yesterday with our captain's run, but I guess that's all part of the experience being over here.”

Australia now head to Dublin to sign off their Autumn Nations Series campaign away to Ireland, with Schmidt coming up against his former side.