Brian O’Driscoll backs former Ireland coach to replace Joe Schmidt as Wallabies boss

Legendary Ireland centre Brian O’Driscoll believes Les Kiss is the right man to take charge of the Wallabies when Joe Schmidt steps down from his position as head coach later this year.

Rugby Australia (RA) announced in February that Schmidt will leave his position after the conclusion of the Rugby Championship in early October.

Since then, there has been plenty said and written about his possible successor with Super Rugby Pacific coaches Kiss (Reds), Dan McKellar (Waratahs) and Stephen Larkham (Brumbies) believed to be the frontrunners, but Kiss is said to be the favourite to be appointed.

Meanwhile, O’Driscoll‘s former Ireland team-mate Ronan O’Gara, who is currently coaching La Rochelle, also expressed interest in becoming the next Wallabies boss while former England, Leinster and Racing 92 coach Stuart Lancaster has also reportedly been shortlisted as Schmidt’s replacement by Rugby Australia.

O’Driscoll, who is regarded as one of rugby union’s best ever centres, was coached by Schmidt and Kiss at Test level for Ireland and also played under Michael Cheika for Leinster.

Former Ireland defence coach

Kiss was part of Ireland’s coaching set-up from 2009 to 2015, working as a defence coach under Declan Kidney and Schmidt and he was also the men from the Emerald Isle’s interim coach for their 2013 summer tour to North America.

O’Driscoll also knows Lancaster well due to his Leinster connection but feels Kiss is the right man to take over the coaching reins when Schmidt steps down.

“I had Les for a very successful period,” O’Driscoll told Nine’s Wide World of Sports. “He was involved in our winning of our first Grand Slam in 2009.

“So, great memories, really good guy. And I’m sure he’s developed and honed his coaching skills, and is an infinitely different coach than he was back then, even though he was a great coach.

“So, as a head coach, I’m sure there’s parts to what he’s built his repertoire with, that I’m not okay with, but he was a bloody good defensive coach.

“He understood the game well, on both sides of the ball. If he’s a favourite, it’d be deserved.”

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Meanwhile, there was lots of speculation over former Australia boss Cheika’s chances of returning to the position when he reportedly met RA chief executive Phil Waugh at a restaurant in Sydney a couple of weeks after it was confirmed that Schmidt would leave his position.

Despite that meeting, Cheika is not viewed as a serious contender for the Wallabies job and O’Driscoll is questioning why that is the case.

“I’d say arguably my most influential coach, just from a timing point of view with me, with Cheik, how he changed the fortune, not just of Leinster rugby, but Irish rugby, because he got Leinster to turn a corner, totally recreated a culture,” he said.

“And he kind of did a little bit of that first time around with Aussie, and I could see him doing a great job again. Sometimes when there’s unfinished business, I could understand why you want to come back for a second bite of the cherry.

“I sense there’d be a better outcome with Cheik coming back a second time around than maybe Eddie (Jones).”

Lancaster was in charge of England during a disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign on home soil in 2015 but rebuilt his reputation with Leinster between 2016 and 2013 before coaching Racing 92 from 2023 until earlier this year.

‘Another really good guy’

“I saw, actually, his name linked with it (Wallabies job). Another really good guy, great rugby brain,” O’Driscoll said.

“He kind of built a huge amount of the foundation work in the multi-phase game that Leinster were playing, that Ireland brought in and incorporated, and now that he’s gone from Leinster, there’s been a fall-off from it because it’s not being practiced.

“I think that’s been very evident, and I think it’s almost – not single-handedly down to him, but very much his mark that he left, and then when he was gone, there was another mark left around the work not done. So, I think he would be another great guy.

“Good thinker of the game, sees it very well, was very generous with me in his time at Leinster, around staying connected to the game, and I was super impressed with his overall understanding of oppositions and how he analysed teams.

“So, yeah, another, geez, there’s three good names in the mix.”

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