It’s time to put the horrid year that 2023 was for rugby behind us and move onto the next chapter in Rugby Australia history. And it seems as though 2024 is off to a flyer.
After Eddie Jones and Rugby Australia’s disastrous World Cup campaign, where the Wallabies bowed out in the group stage for the first time in their history, RA was straight back to the drawing board.
Yet another coaching search, a strong leader to pull the national team out of it’s darkest hour, commenced in the latter stages of 2023. And they’ve found their guy — former Ireland head coach and All Blacks assistant Joe Schmidt.
There were many names in the running to become the next Wallabies head coach, including Dan McKellar who had been earmarked even before the appointment of Eddie Jones, Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham, and former Wallabies boss Michael Cheika.
However, Schmidt has beaten them all for the top job — utilising his connections with Rugby Australia, with head of high performance Peter Horne, and newly appointed former Ireland director of rugby David Nucifora, who has been brought on in an advisory capacity.
The decision comes ahead of schedule from Rugby Australia, who had initially set a deadline for an announcement of a new head coach for March.
So with Joe Schmidt expected to lead the Wallabies into a new era of hopefully much success, here’s everything you need to know about the new man in charge.
Who is new Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt?
Joe Schmidt is a New Zealand-born rugby coach, boasting over two decades of coaching experience — from low level club rugby in Ireland, to Super Rugby teams, all the way up to being an international head coach.
The 58-year-old comes into the Wallabies set up with a great knowledge of the side, having coached against them on six occasions while with the Irish team, beating them four times.
Initially Schmidt was an English teacher at a number of New Zealand high schools, where he’d share that role with coaching duties at those institutions. He was even as high up as deputy principal at Tauranga Boys’ College in the early 2000s.
He is set to become just the third Kiwi to have coached the Wallabies, after Robbie Deans and Dave Rennie.
Where has Joe Schmidt coached before the Wallabies?
Ireland, All Blacks and Leinster
Where hasn’t he coached is probably a better question, but it all started for Joe Schmidt coaching the Bay of Plenty side in New Zealand from 2003 to 2004, where they won the Ranfurly Shield which is a domestic competition based on a challenger system.
He was then scouted to become an assistant coach at the Auckland Blues from 2004-2007, and then continued being an assistant at French club Clermont Auvergne where they were runners-up back-to-back years before winning on the ‘third time lucky’.
It was after that, that Joe Schmidt elevated coaching-wise to become head coach of famous Irish side Leinster, taking over from former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika for three seasons.
Under his leadership at Leinster, Schmidt won two Heineken Cups (a rugby equivalent of the Champions League), a second-tier European title, an United Rugby Championship title, all on a record of winning 77 out of 99 games coached.
With a record that spectacular, the Ireland job came beckoning, being announced head coach back in 2013. Schmidt was at the helm until the 2019 Rugby World Cup, and played a significant role in helping Ireland climb to the No.1 ranking in the world for the first time ever.
He was incredibly successful there, winning the Six Nations three times and coaching Ireland to an historic drought-breaking win over the All Blacks in 2016, after having not beaten them in 111-years.
Unfortunately for Schmidt, Ireland’s Word Cup campaigns never went quite according to plan, bowing out in the Quarter-Finals in both the 2015 and 2019 tournaments.
He then headed back home to New Zealand where he joined the coaching staff at the Blues before being announced as a selector for the national side. He then went on to be the attacking coach under Ian Foster at the latest Rugby World Cup where the All Blacks fell by a point to South Africa in the final.
What does Joe Schmidt bring to the Wallabies?
What Rugby Australia will be hoping for out of Joe Schmidt is that he can replicate something similar to what he was able to achieve when coaching Ireland.
When he enter the role in 2013, Ireland were coming off the back of an embarrassing Six Nations campaign which saw them finish fifth, and drop to their lowest ranking since the World Ranking were created in 2003, ninth.
Over his six years at the helm, he was able to win multiple Six Nations tournaments and elevate Ireland all the way to number one in the world.
It’s scary how similar the situation he’s walking into is; Wallabies have dropped to their lowest ranking ever (9th), are coming off the back of a last placed finish in the Rugby Championship, and have had their worst World Cup campaign ever.
Rugby Australia have clearly seen this and thought he’s the man to lead the Wallabies back to being a global rugby powerhouse.
The Wallabies are entering one of the most important World Cup cycles in their history, hosting the British & Irish Lions in 2025, and the 2027 Rugby World Cup — fair to say the pressure will be immense on Schmidt.
He is however a very disciplined coach that brings a very structured style of play to the Wallabies which historically over the past decade or so contrasts how they’ve played.
But if the Wallabies want success, they have to buy in to everything Joe Schmidt needs from them, but time will tell.
When does Joe Schmidt coach his first game for the Wallabies?
Wallabies vs Wales, Allianz Stadium (Sydney) – July 6
We can expect to see Joe Schmidt lead the Wallabies for the first time in early July, as they play a one-off Test match against Wales in Sydney.
It will be a serious grudge match as the Welsh ended Australia’s hopes of progressing through to the knockout stages at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, and is their first chance for revenge.
The Wales match will then be followed by the Rugby Championship, with Australia facing the All Blacks in the ever-expanding Bledisloe Cup drought, back-to-back World Cup champions in the Springbok, and Argentina who beat the Wallabies in that match-up last year.
