Old head O’Connor gets Schmidt backing following unlikely return

JOHANNESBURG :Injuries have given James O'Connor the chance to win a first Australia cap in three years in the Rugby Championship opener against South Africa on Saturday, but coach Joe Schmidt believes the flyhalf is ready to run the game.

Injuries to Noah Lolesio, Tom Lynagh and Ben Donaldson have opened the door for O’Connor, 35, to make his first international appearance since 2022 in the cauldron of Ellis Park.

There are few tougher places in world rugby to play.

"The good thing with James is he came in right at the start of the Lions series," Schmidt said. "So he’s had three weeks with us.

"He’s had a period to probably just assimilate himself into the systems that we run and to start gaining confidence that he could run the game, and the confidence of the players that he was a guy to listen to. He’s done that really well, and that gives us confidence."

O’Connor’s return to the Wallabies set-up comes after a good season with the Canterbury Crusaders in Super Rugby Pacific.

"I tracked him throughout Super Rugby while he was playing for the Crusaders, and I’ve seen him play for a number of years," Schmidt said.

"He hasn’t played for the Wallabies in three years, so he’s pretty excited by that opportunity."

There was another option open to the coaching team in 25-year-old Tane Edmed, who has one international cap, but the world champion Springboks on the Highveld are not the opposition to test out young talent on.

"Tane’s only just joined us," Schmidt said. "We’ve got a fair bit of confidence in Tane as well, he was on tour with us last year and made his Test debut, but he had a very disrupted Super Rugby season.

"He didn’t play a massive amount of minutes and didn’t play consistently for the Waratahs, so we’re just trying