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Joe Schmidt sets deadline on Wallabies coaching decision

The ARU are confident the coaching brilliance of Joe Schmidt will see a competitive Wallabies in the coming years (Photo Saeed KHAN/Getty Images

Joe Schmidt has shared his thoughts on his important future coaching decision coming up, that he has publicly stated he will be making this December.

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The Wallabies head coach has stated that he will make his decision on a future with Australia Rugby this December after his contract ends after next year’s British and Irish Lions tour of Australia.

Team Form

Last 5 Games

4
Wins
2
1
Streak
2
17
Tries Scored
16
18
Points Difference
0
2/5
First Try
3/5
2/5
First Points
4/5
3/5
Race To 10 Points
3/5

This will determine whether the 59-year-old will continue with Australia rugby as the Wallabies coach ahead of the home World Cup in 2027.

Schmidt, who coached Ireland for six years previously, was unable to enjoy a famous victory in Dublin to end Australia’s 2024 Test campaign.

When asked about whether this performance in Dublin will affect his future with the Wallabies after the British and Irish Lions tour in 2025, Schmidt was hesitant to give a strong answer but was happy with the growth and belief this Wallabies side has gained on the end-of-year tour.

“I’m heartened by where we’ve got to, and determined by what’s in front of us,” said Schmidt to the media after the 22-19 defeat.

“I think, I’d already known that this group of young men had that in them, and it was just for them to find it and galvanize each other and then deliver it. I felt that at times in that first half, we didn’t quite capitalize on some of the line breaks that we made.

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“We did get to the ball, and we did keep the ball, and I felt Max Jorgensen’s try was really well worked to finish that after going side to side.

“So in the second half, probably my one disappointment around the game is that I felt we got quite conservative. And when you do that against Ireland, and you’re hanging on and you’ve got to, you know, you’ve got a four-point lead, and you’re hoping that’s enough, but I just think we tried to do that from too far out.”

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Schmidt pointed out that his team struggled to gain any sort of hold of the match, and to beat Ireland you have to play the full 80 minutes at your best.

“We had a lot less ball in Ireland. You can’t beat them with a sledgehammer. You got to get the scalpel out, and you’ve got to be accurate. That’s probably a disappointment, as I felt we probably opened them up just enough times to get enough scoreboard separation,” Schmidt said.

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“When you get 13 and five, that’s a nice separation, if we could have scored first after halftime, and it’s our kickoff, and we’re kicking deep, then suddenly give up a penalty.

“I just felt if we could have built on that lead in the first 10 minutes after halftime, it could have been, it could have been just to emphasize the pressure that Ireland were under.”

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Comments

7 Comments
A
AM 122 days ago

Schmidt should go. He is a good tactician but a poor selector and stuck with the kiwi mind virus of not selecting OS players. Rassie has demonstrated how silly that approach is. The wallabies need to win and to do that they need to select from the biggest player pool possible and utilise the better coaching standards OS.


Eg Scott Sio scrummed very well for Exeter v du Toit and Stewart this weekend. SA and England props. Yet our scrum was weak against Ireland. He’s not utilised Philip, Kerevi, Latu, Ulysse, Perese, Hodge

Ainsley or Samu. Kerr Barlow is also eligible and he is better than McDermott who runs too much and passes too late.


Get someone in with a better strategic sense who is going to forge good links with OS clubs and get the standard up like Rassie did.


In fact let’s try to clone Rassie.

M
Mitch 124 days ago

I hope he stays on post the Lions series but I think he'll walk away win, lose or draw against the Lions.

O
OJohn 124 days ago

Just go away Schmidt. We don't need a kiwi to teach us how to lose. At least with an Australian coach we can lose with some dignity and know that our players have actually played for their country and not some mercenary who lives in NZ and doesn't even like Australia.

Schmidt's win ratio is 46%. Less than Cheika's and less than Ewen McKenzie's at 50%.

The Wallabies are playing at no more than 65% of their ability because Schmidt is a terrible selector and a poor tactician. They are playing like a dull boring kiwi, not surprisingly. That is not acceptable for Australia.

Schmidt will try and hang on for the money and to make sure the Wallabies don't beat his beloved All Blacks.

C
Cantab 124 days ago

If Oz don't want Schmidt to continue to resurrect their nearly comatose team then the ABs would no doubt be only too glad to have him as an assistant. He did wonders with Ireland and OZ now are much better than they were before he commenced his overhaul of them. Good things take time to realize and no coach is an immediate miracle worker.

E
Ed the Duck 124 days ago

You mean the same way Schmidt coached Ireland to win repeatedly against his beloved All Blacks…???

🙃😂

J
Jon 124 days ago

You are a very sad man!

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f
fl 17 minutes ago
Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

“He won a ECL and a domestic treble at the beginning of his career.”

He won 2 ECLs at the beginning of his career (2009, 2011). Since then he’s won 1 in 15 years.


“He then won 3 leagues on the bounce later in his career”

He won 3 leagues on the bounce at the start of his career too - (2009, 2010, 2011).


If we’re judging him by champions league wins, he peaked in his late 30s, early 40s. If we’re judging him by domestic titles he’s stayed pretty consistent over his career. If we’re judging him by overall win rate he peaked at Bayern, and was better at Barcelona than at City. So no, he hasn’t gotten better by every measure.


“You mentioned coaches were older around the mid-2010’s compared to the mid-2000’s. Robson was well above the average age you’ve given for those periods even in the 90’s when in his pomp.”

Robson was 63-64 when he was at Barcelona, so he wasn’t very old. But yeah, he was slightly above the average age of 60 I gave for the top 4 premier league coaches in 2015, and quite a bit above the averages for 2005 and 2025.


“Also, comparing coaches - and their experiences, achievements - at different ages is unstable. It’s not a valid way to compare and tends to torpedo your own logic when you do compare them on equal terms. I can see why you don’t like doing it.”

Well my logic certainly hasn’t been torpedoed. Currently the most successful premier league coaches right now are younger than they were ten years ago. You can throw all the nuance at it that you want, but that fact won’t change. It’s not even clear what comparing managers “on equal terms” would even mean, or why it would be relevant to anything I’ve said.


“You still haven’t answered why Kiss could be a risker appointment?”

Because I’ve been talking to you about football managers. If you want to change the subject then great - I care a lot more about rugby than I do football.

But wrt Kiss, I don’t agree that 25 years experience is actually that useful, given what a different sport rugby was 25 years ago. Obviously in theory more experience can never be a bad thing, but I think 10 years of coaching experience is actually more than enough these days. Erasmus had been a coach for 13 years when he got the SA top job. Andy Farrell had been a coach for 9 when he got the Ireland job. I don’t think anyone would say that either of them were lacking in experience.


Now - what about coaches who do have 25+ years experience? The clearest example of that would be Eddie Jones, who started coaching 31 years ago. He did pretty well everywhere he worked until around 2021 (when he was 61), when results with England hit a sharp decline. He similarly oversaw a terrible run with Australia, and currently isn’t doing a great job with Japan.

Another example is Warren Gatland, who also started coaching full-time 31 years ago, after 5 years as a player-coach. Gatland did pretty well everywhere he went until 2020 (when he was 56), when he did a relatively poor job with the Chiefs, before doing a pretty poor job with the Lions, and then overseeing a genuine disaster with Wales. There are very few other examples, as most coaches retire or step back into lesser roles when they enter their 60s. Mick Byrne actually has 34 years experience in coaching (but only 23 years coaching in rugby) and at 66 he’s the oldest coach of a top 10 side, and he’s actually doing really well. He goes to show that you can continue to be a good coach well into your 60s, but he seems like an outlier.


So the point is - right now, Les Kiss looks like a pretty reliable option, but 5 years ago so did Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland before they went on to prove that coaches often decline as they get older. If Australia want Kiss as a short term appointment to take over after Schmidt leaves in the summer, I don’t think that would be a terrible idea - but NB wanted Kiss as a long term appointment starting in 2027! That’s a massive risk, given the chance that his aptitude will begin to decline.


Its kind of analagous to how players decline. We know (for example) that a fly-half can still be world class at 38, but we also know that most fly-halves peak in their mid-to-late 20s, so it is generally considered a risk to build your game plan around someone much older than that.

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NB 2 hours ago
Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

https://www.london.edu/think/how-claudio-ranieri-transformed-leicester-city


He jts knew how to use that deep well of knowledge accumulate over many years of management. A true Moneyball story!

168 Go to comments
f
fl 2 hours ago
Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

“Two comparable achievements 15 years apart (at different clubs in different leagues) represent failure and not continued success for an elite level coach/manager? Not even a hint of consistency? Just gradual, inevitable decline? And all because he is in his sixth decade?”

Why don’t you try reading what I wrote before you start inventing a load of other random things that I didn’t say. I said “Pep hasn’t gotten better with age”. He hasn’t. I don’t think he’s got much worse, and yeah, he’s been fairly consistent over his career and has had more success than almost any other coach. But he hasn’t gotten better.


“You’ve missed that Mourinho’s early start in football was as a translator for Bobby Robson (ironically a much older manager at the time!).”

I was actually aware of that. I didn’t mention it because it wasn’t relevant to the fact that Mourinho - aged 52 - had more experience than Arteta does at 43. It also isn’t ironic that Bobby Robson was a much older manager at the time - it actually confirms by point that a lot of the top football managers used to be older than they are today.


“You suggested that Les Kiss would not be suited to an international coaching role because of his age profile…that seemed to relate to rugby”

That did relate to rugby. Let me walk you through the thread…


NB suggested that Les Kiss should become Australia head coach in 2027.

I said: “Given the drop off so many top coaches seem to experience as they get older (e.g. Jones, Gatland) Kiss could be a riskier appointment than you’d think!”

NB said: “Drawing a parallel with the NFL and NBA, plenty of coaches stay well into their 70’s”

I said: “Not all sports are going the same way though” then gave the example of football.


The example of football was introduced in order to make the point that the age profile of managers is not the same in every sport. If you had read the thread you were replying to you would know this!

168 Go to comments
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