Schmidt was speaking after yesterday's victory over Georgia, and was asked if his side were ready for Australia.

“Can I let you know in six days?” he joked in response.

“It’s hard to prepare for a team that have had a change of coach. We have seen a few things that they are doing differently in the last few days," he said.

“It’s a little bit difficult to assess them at the moment.”

Australia are now managed by ex-Leinster coach Michael Cheika and were unlucky to lose to France in a very close game at the weekend.

“They scored very early in the game, the French, and then they scored a freakish try,” Schmidt said. “But apart from that the Wallabies could have won by ten or twelve points.”

“It’s a tough place to go, Stade the France, and get back up again the next week. I’ve no doubt they’re tough enough to do it, but Cheika might be looking at how best he balances that.”

Schmidt’s job of preparing his side is made trickier by not knowing what players they can expect to face.

Australia's Kurtley Beale

“Obviously the abundance of talent they have, the types of players they have,” he said. “It’ll be interesting to see the composition of the team. With

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“Some of it(the preparation) will happen later in the week,” explained Schmidt. “We get together tomorrow afternoon, we’ll train Tuesday and Thursday and they will be two very brief windows of preparation to try to be on the money next Saturday.”

“If you don’t shut them down they are very very dangerous. I did think that the French targeted Israel Folau - they closed his space very quickly and I think they didn’t allow him to get up and running, but the one time he did he didn’t look too bad.”

“The Wallabies will be very, very tough, without a doubt.”