It does not seem so very long ago, does it? If you wanted top-quality coaching provenance, you simply cast your net across the waters in Australia or New Zealand. Chances are you would come up with a prize catch, an Andy Friend in Connacht or a Chris Boyd in Northampton or a Pat Lam on the west coast of Ireland or in the west country of England. There was no lengthy trawl needed, a pole-and-line was enough to reel in the trophy specimen.
On the international stage, first Australia through the good agencies of Bob Dwyer [1988-1995] and Rod Macqueen [1997-2001], then New Zealand via the innovations of the three wise men, Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith [2004-2019] led the rugby world, torch in hand, through the labyrinths of early professionalism. They won the lion’s share of World Cups and they represented the planet-wide advantage in cutting edge coaching IP the two nations held at all levels of the game.
The only temporary interruption to that thought leadership occurred in 2003 when Clive Woodward assembled an England coaching panel with at least three global leaders in its ranks – Phil Larder on defence, Dave Alred in the kicking game and strength and conditioning coach Dave Reddin. Even the Springboks’ win in 2007 would probably have been impossible without the presence of Eddie Jones sitting on Jake White’s shoulder as the conscience of the South African game. Kiwi Tony Brown is performing much the same role for Rassie Erasmus now.
The number of Santa Claus clones bringing gifts to the northern hemisphere from the pole down under has trimmed down dramatically, and now it is Australia and New Zealand who are fishing hopefully for new coaching resources.
Jones recently discussed Wallaby prospects under the stewardship of incoming Queensland Reds supremo Les Kiss on the Rugby Unity podcast. Reading between the lines, it was clear Kiss will be struggling to put together a top-shelf coaching panel, much like Joe Schmidt before him. Jones began by referencing the difficulty Australian coaching has in developing the existing talent within its purview.
“Joe Schmidt has been talking about the lack of development of players in Australia. [They are] not declining, but not going forward as they would have hoped.”
The Randwick mastermind went on to discuss the dynamics of the Wallaby coaching group forming around Kiss. Lineout guru Tom Donnelly and skills coach Eoin Toolan are likely to carry over from the Schmidt regime, while Kiss’ long-time assistant Jonathan Fisher will probably fulfil Laurie Fisher’s role as a contact specialist. It was recently reported Kiss will ‘have a handle over the attack space’ and run the Wallaby offence himself.
On the pod, Jones had forecast he would take precisely the opposite course.
“He’s always been a more defence-minded coach. He’s always coached the defensive side of the game, so it’ll be interesting to see whether he takes that defensive mindset to the Australian team.”
Jones harked back to the blueprint set down by the green-and-gold teams of the late nineties and early noughties, featuring the first big coaching import from rugby league, Paramatta Eels man John Muggleton. Muggleton coached defence, and on his watch the Wallabies conceded only a solitary try on their way to triumph at the 1999 World Cup.
“That’s not to say the Australian side didn’t [attack], but they had a much more defence-focused mindset, and it’ll be interesting to see whether Les brings that to the Australian side.
“It will only be a subtle shift, and it’s only a nuanced change. But it’ll be interesting to see whether that comes forward. You’ll maybe see with that a little bit more line speed from Australia, a bit more aggression, because under Laurie Fisher, he plays that more connected defence – stay connected.
“There’s two ways of going about it. You either go line-speed, or you go connectiveness, and maybe Australia’s tended to be more connected, and [there is a question] whether Les will bring a more aggressive approach to go a bit more line-speed, which has its risks, because then you tend to defend a bit narrower, and the outside space can be exposed.”
With Kiss looking to ‘handle the attack space’, the greatest single area of need for the Wallabies has not been addressed as a priority. ‘Lord’ Laurie Fisher was corralled into double duty as breakdown specialist and defensive co-ordinator under Schmidt, but any improvements in those aspects from the Lions series and the Rugby Championship were washed away by the performances in November. Australia shipped 19 tries in four games, with 13 of those coming in the last two fixtures against Ireland and France.
Kiss’ two Super Rugby seasons with the Reds have hardly inspired confidence in the Queensland defence either.
The overall graph is one of gradual decline, and in both seasons the Reds have been slightly better on offence than they have been defensively. If anything, the bias in Kiss’ coaching priorities tends towards play with ball in hand rather than performance without it.
Throughout Schmidt’s time in charge, the Wallabies clung on to an old-fashioned 12/1/2 defensive system: 12 men in the line, two in the backfield with the scrum-half defending in the zone between the two. The system emphasises connectedness between defenders at the cost of aggression.
At this lineout from game against France, there are two backfield defenders standing deep, with the front line drifting across to link up with them as play moves to the far sideline. The scrum-half fills the space in between, to plug gaps and pick up any short kicks through.
The problem with the three layers of defence is the soft shoulders they offer up front, and the risk of the scrum-half getting caught in no man’s land and becoming an irrelevance.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) December 18, 2025
Youngster Kalvin Gourgues steps a back-pedalling Len Ikitau on the inside, and the scrum-half would be better deployed in the line to afford Ikitau and his mates an added insurance policy in midfield.
One of the issues with the Wallaby midfield which was never completely resolved was the role of newcomer Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii in the centre. With his relative lack of experience in the sister code, the ex-Leaguer often made a first mis-step which cost the Wallabies dearly.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) December 18, 2025
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) December 18, 2025
In the first clip, Suaalii stays faithful to the religion of connectedness, backing off and waiting for the defenders inside him to link up before play reaches the far sideline. But it is all far, far too slow: the interior defence never connects with Suaalii until the final pass is made, and the ex-Rooster is never able to make a tackle, even one metre from his own goal-line.
In the second example he takes a first step out of the line, and it leaves him one fatal stride short of getting back on even terms with UBB flyer Louis Bielle-Biarrey when the ball hits the right 5m line.
That connoisseur of outside centre play, Ireland legend Brian O’Driscoll summarised the issue neatly after another instance in the previous match at the Aviva stadium in Dublin.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) December 18, 2025
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) December 18, 2025
As ‘Drico’ observed drily in commentary on the first try, “You would be disappointed if you were the Australian defence coach here. [Irish centre] Robbie Henshaw has a bit of a juggle [with the ball]. Suaalii has to smash him, man and ball, and he should not get a second grab at that. Once it’s offloaded there is only going to be one outcome.”
In the second clip, Suaalii is a micro-moment short of blocking down Sam Prendergast’s cross-kick out to the right for Brumby discard Mack Hansen’s third try of the game. The margin for error is so small, one half-step late and you don’t quite make it. Somehow it typified the ex-leaguer’s season in particular, and that of Schmidt’s Wallaby defence in general.
Rugby Australia needs to find a defence coach urgently – it is as simple as that. Schmidt attempted to wrangle Fisher, a natural breakdown and contact specialist, to run the same pattern he had implemented with Ireland, and it never quite settled as a rock-solid foundation stone the Wallabies could rely on, come hell or high water. Against the better attacking teams, the system showed its age and did no favours to the would-be superstar of Australian rugby.
With Kiss looking to ‘handle the attack space’ that yawning gap on the coaching staff still exists. Just like New Zealand with the vacancy created by the departure of Jason Holland, the Wallabies may need to look overseas to acquire the coaching IP they so urgently need; but like the All Blacks, they will be reluctant to take that step forward, out and away from the praxis of Super Rugby. But that is a story for another day, a tale you can read in the second part of this southern hemisphere double-header.
Surely Michael Cheika and/or David kidwell could be interested? Rugby League minded defense coaches seem to get the goods.