Rugby Australia revelation makes Joe Schmidt the frontrunner for Wallabies role

Rugby Australia appear to be setting their sights on former Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt as the successor to Eddie Jones.

The governing body’s CEO Phil Waugh has said that they are in a rush to appoint their next boss, with Schmidt shaping up to be the frontrunner.

Schmidt is close to new high performance director Peter Horne, as well as advisor David Nucifora, who worked with the 58-year-old at Ireland for five years.

According to The Roar, Schmidt is interested in taking the position and Horne has since admitted that he is “totally open” to appointing a foreign coach.

The Australian way

“We need the best possible coach to lead the system and the culture,” Rugby Australia chief executive Waugh said.

“What I will say is that our competitive advantage in sport is being Australian and so that Australian way and that Australian culture needs to be driven through the team.

“But that can be driven through a coach not from Australia.”

Dan McKellar, Stephen Larkham and former Wallabies boss Michael Cheika are other names that have been mentioned for the position.

But it is Schmidt that is leading the way, according to reports in the Australian media, with the governing body wanting to appoint a head coach before the end of March.

“We’ll be in the market next week with expressions of interest and ideally we want to be having an appointment in certainly Q-1 [first quarter] in 2024 given that the Welsh are here in July,” Waugh said.

“So it is a bit of a sprint. We understand that time is against us, but equally, it’s a really important process to get right.

“This is a journey and this is the start of that journey and a really exciting path ahead for the game here in Australia and we need to be very disciplined and go through the right process to get the best possible people into the organisation.”

Length of contract

Waugh was also asked whether the new head coach would take them through to the end of the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

“It would be dependent on the applicants (being) open to what’s going to drive immediate success, but equally how to drive sustained success,” he said.

“We’ve historically got into this rhythm of it’s all about a World Cup. You end up in a World Cup cycle and you’ve seen through the success of Ireland being a really good example.

“They’ve never got through past the quarter-finals at a World Cup but they’ve been winning consistently at provincial level and at Test-match level and therefore it drives engagement with spectators and fans and the community.

“So I’m really interested in creating winning Wallabies and winning Wallaroos. The sevens team are on the right path both across the men’s and the women’s.

“But what’s really important is winning consistently and not just having a sugar hit of a really successful World Cup and then dipping afterwards.”

READ MORE: Rugby Australia make key appointments in bid to find new Wallabies coach