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Wallabies don't need another Eddie Everywhere, but Schmidt must speak up

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Should Australia stick with Super Rugby Pacific? (3:23)

The ESPN Scrum Reset reflect on the Brumbies' third straight Super Rugby Pacific semifinal exit and whether RA should consider a return to a domestic competition. (3:23)

Eddie Jones has said more about the Wallabies since his exit than Joe Schmidt has since he was unveiled as coach in January, but on Friday that will finally change - at least for a little while any way.

The now-Japan coach has reflected on his tumultuous second stint as Wallabies boss in a series of "exclusive" interviews, admitting, among other things, he made a mistake in antagonising Australia's media contingent and that he had tried to change "too much" in too short a timeframe.

Jones also doubled down on his belief that he did not have the requisite support from Rugby Australia (RA) in his bid to turn things around and, as a result, felt he could no longer continue.

The truth of the matter is, however, that Jones had made such a hash of Australia's Rugby World Cup campaign that there were very few people in the game who wanted him to continue in the role - even before you consider the fact that he had already applied to be Japan's head coach - with his one genuine ally Hamish McLennan soon following Jones out the door.

As one senior RA executive quipped recently, the Wallabies sacked Dave Rennie and lost a coaching team of Laurie Fisher, Scott Wisemantel and Dan McKellar, and replaced it with Jones, two rugby league coaches and a former French scrum-half who looked after the maul.

The complete and utter insanity of it all.

On Friday, however, Australia can finally condemn Jones' second Wallabies era to history after Schmidt at last unveiled the first squad of his 18-month tenure. Whether he extends beyond next year's much-anticipated British & Irish Lions series will depend on what level of success he achieves between now and then.

Friday's announcement is doubly important because Schmidt will also be forced to talk about Australia's playing contingent, something he has been loathed to do throughout Super Rugby Pacific.

While Jones had name-dropped just about the entire Australian cohort at this stage last year, Schmidt has, unsurprisingly, kept his cards close to his chest.

That has always been the Kiwi's way. It's not that he isn't talkative, just that he can say a lot, without saying much at all.

Schmidt appeared both on the ABC's Offsiders and Channel 9's Sports Sunday programmes earlier in the year, but such were the lack of soundbites, that it barely rated a mention.

And that, to this point, is exactly what Australian rugby has needed. After Jones declared he was preparing to use the "cattle prod" on Suliasi Vunivalu and was targeting NRL players like Cameron Murray, the lack of laughs has been welcomed.

But while "Eddie Everywhere" was overkill -- a fact Jones himself has now admitted -- the time for Joe Schmidt to speak up has well and truly arrived.

When Schmidt unveils his Wallabies squad on Friday, Australia will at last have an idea on the players to take the game forward and just how the former Ireland boss intends to do it.

Who will steer the ship from No. 10? How does he plan to get the best out of Taniela Tupou? Who is in the running to be Wallabies captain and why?

In other words: How is he going to move the Wallabies on from their 2024 rock bottom.

The two-Test series against Wales and a one-off clash with Georgia thereafter is a welcomed soft launching pad for Schmidt, too. Where the Wallabies could have faced Six Nations champions Ireland, runners-up France or even Scotland or England, a date with tournament wooden-spooners Wales, who were even beaten at home in Cardiff by Italy, is a far more palatable outcome.

But anything other than a 3-0 return in July would be deemed a failure, too, despite Australia's last outing against Wales being the 40-6 thrashing in Lyon that effectively ended the Wallabies' World Cup campaign.

That was also the day Jones' act of coaching treachery was also exposed; the defeat a perfect summation of his chaotic and largely directionless reign that culminated in his exit a month later.

Jones has since taken ownership, in part, for that abject mess, and also admitted his approach with the media did not hit its desired outcome.

Schmidt doesn't need to antagonise, just engage. He needs to make a case for why supporters should give the team another chance, then set about giving his players the tools to execute his blueprint out there on the paddock.

The Wallabies don't - and didn't ever - need "Eddie Everywhere, but they can't survive relying on a diet of Joe Somebody either. It's time for Schmidt to bring the Australian rugby community along for the ride, starting with his squad naming on Friday.