Making two World Cup finals and winning Olympic medals in 2028 key pillars of new Rugby Australia plan

A win over England raised hopes the Wallabies are on the way back and a bold new strategy for the code in Australia is predicting more waves of success.

A potential long term commitment from Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt could shape the game’s immediate future and help usher in a “golden decade” with bold success targets set by officials including ending a 22-year Bledisloe Cup drought and seizing upon “once-in-a-generation” World Cup opportunities after years of decline.

Rugby Australia released a five-year “From Green to Gold” strategy with plans to become “to become the world’s No.1 rugby playing nation” amid a raft of high-level expectations which chairman Dan Herbert would come from nationwide alignment to get the Wallabies “back to winning ways”.

Among the stated aims, which include getting “50 per cent of Australians” among the fan base, is a plan to increase winning rates to 70 per cent for all national teams and secure medals in rugby sevens at the 2028 LA Olympics after missing out in Paris.

“You have to give the public and our fans some lofty ambitions, otherwise what are we aiming for ?” Herbert said on Tuesday.

“We want to get back to winning ways.

“We know that we have done a lot of work to create a platform for success and as long as the game remains united I think we can deliver on them.”

Under new coach Joe Schmidt, the Wallabies won six of 13 Tests in 2024, a win rate of just 46 per cent, but one of those wins included taking down old foes England at Twickenham, a victory sparked by code hopper Joseph Akuso Suaalii, who looms as a key man in RA’s big vision for more success.

The Wallabies celebrate with the Ella Mobbs Cup after their victory over England. Picture: David Rogers/Getty Images

Schmidt is contracted until the end of the 2025 British and irish Lions tour and talks with RA boss Phil Waugh and about an extension beyond that will ramp up next week when returns to Sydney with the hope he will commit to the long-term having had a positive immediate impact taking over from the disastrous second stint of Eddie Jones,

“We’ve been working through with Joe, he’s still overseas and coming back this week, so we expect to sit down with Joe and work through the plan post-Lions,” Waugh said.

“He’s done a lot of heavy lifting and there’s been progress in the Wallabies environment, and he’s surrounded himself with really good people.

“Now it’s important to give players and staff certainty over the next few weeks.”

The new RA plan has been revealed amid growing positivity around the game in recent months and is underpinned by three pillars – performance excellence, participation growth and promotion excellence – with guiding principles officials believe can help re-establish rugby as the major code it once was.

Joe Schmidt, Head Coach of the Wallabies. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

National team success could define the game’s future and under the pillar tagged performance excellence, the plan declares the Wallabies and other Australian rugby teams will:

• Win the British and Irish Lions series in 2025

• Compete on the final weekend at the men’s 2027 RWC and women’s 2029 RWC

• Improve our win rate by 2029 to more than 70 per cent for all teams and win gold medals medals at LA2028

- Win Bledisloe Cup every second year.

– Win two Super Rugby Pacific titles

The Wallabies have not won the Bledisloe Cup, the annual trans-Tasman clash with New Zealand, since 2002.

Waugh also conceded that while RA was saddled with a monster debt that the governing body doesn’t have “the revenue lines that we require to do everything we would like to do”.

But he expected bumper revenue from the Lions tour would be followed by an increased TV rights deal from 2026 onwards, to help fund the game, with more dollars to flow from World Cps in 2027 and 2028, both being staged in Australia.

“Australian rugby is united, aligned, and poised for success on and off the field,” he said.

“We believe this strategy will be a landmark in Australia’s rugby story, unlocking unprecedented success and ushering in a new era of growth and unity.

“The future has never looked brighter.”

Originally published as Making two World Cup finals and winning Olympic medals in 2028 key pillars of new Rugby Australia plan