{"id":308686,"date":"2025-11-25T23:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T23:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/308686\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T23:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T23:20:09","slug":"rugby-australia-backs-wallabies-coach-joe-schmidt-coaching-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/308686\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby Australia backs Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt, coaching record"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby Australia threw its support behind embattled Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt, saying it had \u201cabsolute confidence\u201d in the New Zealander despite leading the team to a record 10 defeats in a calendar year.<\/p>\n

Watch the biggest Aussie sports & the best from overseas LIVE on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

Schmidt had been due to step aside after this year\u2019s Rugby Championship, but agreed to extend his tenure until mid-2026 when Les Kiss will take over.<\/p>\n

Kiss is contracted to the Queensland Reds until then.<\/p>\n

But calls have been mounting for the 60-year-old Schmidt to go early after their disastrous European tour was capped by a 48-33 loss to France in Paris last weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was the Wallabies\u2019 first winless European tour since 1958. Schmidt said in France he would be happy to stand down if Rugby Australia had a better option, but the governing body\u2019s chief executive Phil Waugh backed him to keep going.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got absolute confidence in Joe, being one of the world\u2019s best — if not the best — coach in the world, and the progress that he\u2019s made with the group can\u2019t be underestimated,\u201d Waugh told The Australian newspaper.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we\u2019re all disappointed with the outcome in terms of wins and losses, what we\u2019ve seen and the growth we\u2019ve seen from the group over the last 18 months under Joe\u2019s leadership has been quite transformational.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got absolute confidence in the direction of travel that Joe\u2019s taking the team forward with and the transition plan that we have with Les post the Nations Championship in 2026.\u201d <\/p>\n

Wallabies demolished by Ireland | 02:18<\/p>\n

Currently, Schmidt is scheduled to coach the Wallabies in the first three Nations Championship games next July against Italy, Ireland and France.<\/p>\n

He will then hand over the reins, with Waugh confident it would leave enough time for Kiss to stamp his mark on the team leading into the 2027 World Cup on home soil.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe benefit of having Joe stay on for longer, and his long history with Les, is that we\u2019re very keen not for there to be a fresh start but for there to be continued progress and that level of continuity,\u201d he told the newspaper.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe in that continuity and a lot of the management team staying on because it\u2019s not just about the head coach, but it\u2019s also around the continuity of management.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby Australia threw its support behind embattled Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt, saying it had \u201cabsolute confidence\u201d in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-308686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}