Surely a man of Joe Schmidt’s track record could find something better

He definitely sees it as a challenge and why not, for his part he had a big impact on the All Blacks when they seemed to be floundering around. As has been said if he brings up the quality of the Wallabies that is only to the betterment of the All Blacks, as muchas I would hate to see the Wallabies take the bled it would definitely bring up the competition level. Good luck to him

A great reply mate 👍🏽👍🏽

People seem to forget that when Schmidt took over Ireland they were ranked 8th in the world, a team that hadn’t beaten the All Blacks in 111 years of trying. He took them to number 1 in the world and not only beat the All Blacks, but set them up to beat them regularly. He’s now taken over Australia, who are ranked 9th in the world and haven’t won the Bledisloe against the ABs in 22 years. This seems like a challenge made for the man. PS I’d rank taking the team from 8th to first as a better record than the guy who took them over and still got knocked out in a quarter.

It's a challenge isn't it. Australia are in a bad way but they are a sleeping giant. It's probably an exciting prospect for a coach to potentially take Australia from rock bottom back to the top.

Can any one say why Foster and Schmidt didn't take up the vacant role in Fiji?

The headline says it all…. A sniffy article from across the ditch. How unusual. Existing relationships involving mutual respect with the new high performance manager, the new advisor, the new Reds coach. Nowhere to go but up. A genuine rugby man taking on a high profile position with a home Lions tour and WC on the horizon. Why on earth indeed. Surely he could find something better than being involved with the Aussies. I have some ideas as to why “you can’t understand”.

Getting paid a million dollars a year to undermine Australian rugby, at it’s lowest ebb, where any micro improvement will look great, is a no brainer for Bilbo Schmidt.

A few Zoom calls from his Smial in NZ, while laughing all the way to the bank. What could be more fun ?

Select a few more Tah players to keep his sponsors happy and see Australia fail under a kiwi coach, again. The dream job.

Australia are not impressed by know it all kiwis. End of story. Hard as that is for kiwis to accept.

Great opportunity for Joe with Australia on a record low international profile the only way is up and he will have the chance to be as a coach in the driver seat of change

There is nothing to lose and everything to gain for Joe wounded animals are dangerous there is great rugby talent in Australia who are ready to play and make the difference

Really looking forward to seeing the Wallabies play in 2024 under his guidance and hopefully get back in the Rugby pecking order on the international stage

Maybe it’s the only job on offer? If he’s so amazeballs, why isn’t he being retained in the AB setup?

Australia have two problems - they need to be competitive immediately, and they need to be competitive long term.

Schmidt is the perfect man to help them with problem 1. The turnaround in the ABs backline after he took over was night and day. I think about how much better the ABs could have been if he was installed after the disastrous NH tour of 2021, instead of persisting with Moar/Plumtree for another year, who despite being successful coaches in their own right had the ABs well off the pace.

I have no doubt the Wallabies that will play the Lions in 18 months will be much better than the Wallabies who played during the World Cup.

They have also found a great solution to problem number 2 - David Nucifora has just moved from Ireland back to Australia in an advisory role - He has been the Irish High Performance Coach for close to 10 years when they have undergone a huge transformation and now have incredible depth across the squad and at U20s. Peter Horne with similar credentials and has been implementing high performance structures in a number of countries including Fiji, has been appointed Australia’s high performance coach.

These three appointments will do more to improve Australian rugby than anything they have done in the past 10 - 15 years as they have gotten progressively worse.

Very simple - his only aim is eventually to secure the only job that matters to him (indeed every New Zealand coach). So to realise that end goal any international head coach experience is invaluable. Just work down the other nations 1 by one: Sa - no chance, Ireland - no chance, France - no chance, England - no chance, Wales - no chance, Oz - aha, gap.

The split second the ABs come knocking with a head coach offer he’ll resign the same day. Very simple…..