Rugby boss reveals ambitious Bledisloe and World Cup plans: ‘I think that we’re well positioned’

Rugby Australia could get an answer from Joe Schmidt this week about extending his coaching contract after the British and Irish Lions tour, but believes it has an Australian coach ready if he walks away.

Schmidt’s contract talks come amid the publication of an ambitious five-year strategy document from RA, which includes winning the Bledisloe Cup and the Rugby Championship every two years.

The Wallabies have made huge progress since Schmidt took over this year, with players and fans alike calling for the Kiwi coach to remain at the helm until the next World Cup in Australia in 2027.

During their recent UK tour, the Australians recorded wins against England and Wales and were unlucky not to upset heavyweights Ireland in Dublin.

Schmidt is currently on holiday in Ireland, where members of his family are based, and is expected back in Sydney this week, where RA boss Phil Waugh wants him locked up long-term.

“We have been working with Joe, he is still abroad and will be back this week, so we expect to sit down with Joe and work out the plan after Lions,” Waugh said.

The rejuvenated Wallabies recently defeated England on home soil before recording another encouraging victory against Wales

“He’s done a lot of hard work and progress has been made in the Wallabies environment, and he’s surrounded himself with really good people.

‘Now it is important to give players and staff certainty in the coming weeks.’

He said RA was working on a ‘contingency plan’ in case Schmidt did not commit to the World Cup, with Australia’s Super Rugby coaches being the obvious candidates.

“We’re exploring what that might look like, what is an appropriate business practice if you don’t have certain outcomes,” Waugh said.

“I think Joe was quite open about the fact that he saw his responsibility in taking Australia to the next level and also providing a platform for an Australian to take over when he’s ready.

‘Now if you look at our Super Rugby clubs, the four head coaches across the system: Simon Cron is a strong coach at the Force, you’ve got Stephen Larkin at the Brumbies, Les Kiss in Queensland and Dan McKellar at NSW, so we We have four very strong coaches in our system.

“I think we’re well positioned.”

RA’s strategic plan, called ‘From Green To Gold’, has three ‘pillars’ – performance excellence, participation growth and promotion effectiveness – and aims to see Australia return to its status as the top-ranked rugby nation.

It wasn’t that long ago that the Wallabies crashed out of the World Cup in the pool stages for the first time in history

RA admits it has set ‘lofty’ targets, including reaching the last four of the men’s and women’s Rugby World Cup (both 2027), improving its win rate to 70 per cent, with the men’s team also targeting every two years to victory in the Bledisloe Cup. year – a trophy they haven’t won since 2002.

It also aims to see Australian teams win gold at the LA Olympics and two Super Rugby titles.

RA president Daniel Herbert said the difference between this strategy document and those of the past was that everyone, including affiliated unions, was now pulling in one direction.

“Collectively, the stakeholders have been working together over the last 10 months… we have had three stakeholder summits and other meetings,” Herbert said.

‘We are very proud of how the game has been built to deliver this strategic document, and we look forward to working with our member unions to ensure we achieve the very lofty ambitions we have for the code achieve in the next five years. years.

“We are still a long way from where we came from in the last 12 months, but we still have a very long way to go.

‘We think it is feasible, but there is still a lot of work to be done.’