Wallabies one step closer to appointing Joe Schmidt successor as favoured candidate revealed after key ‘secret meeting’ – report

Current Queensland Reds head coach Les Kiss is poised to be named as Joe Schmidt’s replacement as Wallabies head coach, according to reports down under. 

Kiss, who is contracted to the Reds until 2026, has been one of the leading contenders since it was confirmed Schmidt would be leaving the Wallabies after the 2025 Rugby Championship.

Les Kiss set to land Wallabies job

Rugby Australia (RA) have been fairly open with their recruitment process since the announcement of Schmidt’s departure, and, it now seems they’ve taken a big leap in securing his successor.

Reports have emerged from the ROAR suggesting RA’s CEO Phil Waugh and director of high performance Peter Horne held a secret meeting with Reds CEO David Hanham and general manager Sam Cordingley to discuss the possibility of Kiss taking the reins of the Wallabies later this year, while still serving out his contract with the Brisbane-based Reds.

Commenting on the possibility of a job-sharing role, Waugh told reporters: “We’re looking at the whole ecosystem. I think what we’ve done historically is talk about a Wallaby head coach, and that takes all the attention away from assistant coaches and what’s happening within the Super Rugby environment, so we’re focusing on how do you get the best possible coaches in the Super Rugby environment.

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“If you can’t win at a Super Rugby level, you can’t win Test matches, and we’ve seen that historically throughout since 1996 in Super Rugby.

“We’re confident we’ll get the balance right between shared services or resources, and ensuring that we’ve got the world’s best coaches leading the international program.

“What we’ll do is we’ll get the best environment to set the team up for success.”

Kiss wouldn’t be the first to do this job-sharing role either, with Michael Cheika leading the Wallabies on their end-of-year tour in 2014 before returning to the Waratahs for the 2015 Super Rugby season.

While Kiss might seem the clear front-runner at the moment, the aforementioned Cheika and former England boss Stuart Lancaster are also understood to be leading contenders for the post as well.

These reports also come after legendary centre Brian O’Driscoll, who Kiss coached for Ireland, backed the Reds’ boss to succeed as Schmidt’s successor.

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

The Reds currently sit third in Super Rugby after five wins from their opening seven matches.

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