‘He will make a difference’: Why new Wallabies boss is primed to succeed

Years spent plying his trade underneath the new Wallabies coach has given Les Kiss a unique insight into the man tasked with salvaging the green and gold jumper’s brand, and he delivered a powerful statement of what the incoming mentor will do for Australian rugby union.

“He’ll come out, and he will make a difference,” Kiss declared.

Les Kiss, who coached alongside Joe Schmidt, has backed the new Wallabies mentor to thrive.Credit: Brendan Hertel

Just two weeks out from his first Super Rugby Pacific trial as the Queensland Reds coach, Kiss endorsed the recently appointed Joe Schmidt as the man to spearhead the national side’s revival.

The 59-year-old worked as an assistant to Schmidt when the latter guided Ireland from underachiever to world rugby powerhouse, and saw first-hand the traits needed to reconnect an Australian code that has been in disarray since the fallout of the failed World Cup campaign.

As Rugby Australia strives towards high-performance centralisation, a concept Schmidt was actively involved with in Ireland before his assistant coaching duties with the All Blacks, Kiss revealed the characteristics that would enable him to thrive in one of the nation’s most scrutinised jobs in sport.

“He’ll cut through the fluff, get to the main things that matter, concentrate on the areas that will make the most difference and leverage the qualities of the group that he’ll have with him,” Kiss said.

“Joe brings a lot of expertise and a lot of success, and he knows how to get the right things out of players when putting them in from different environments and gelling them together to go somewhere together.

“He’ll connect us all and the reality is, my job now is to make sure that … we do our best job to allow the right things to happen at the top, and that’s our focus. He’s a very good, solid relationship builder, and he’ll get around the traps and make sure we’re all connected.

“He’ll come out, and he will make a difference … and we’re driven to make sure that we can do our best so that makes it better up the top as well.”

Schmidt’s appointment, along with RA’s new director of high-performance Peter Horne, has become a beacon of hope that change is afoot on Australian shores.

That new era could inspire resurgent chapters from former Wallabies eager to return to the international fore, among them Liam Wright.

Joe Schmidt has been locked in to coach the Wallabies.Credit: Brook Mitchell

The luckless forward, named on Monday as Reds’ co-captain alongside halfback Tate McDermott, has declared he has been training all preseason unhindered by the shoulder injury which cruelly ended his Super Rugby campaign prematurely last year.

It followed four years of constant stints in the casualty ward – a broken hand and badly torn hamstring among the setbacks – which has kept him from adding to his five Wallabies caps.

But while praising Schmidt’s recruitment, Wright – who said he had put on extra muscle weight throughout his rehabilitation in a bid to make a greater impact on the field – was adamant he was not letting dreams of an Australian comeback engulf him just yet.

“That’s the ultimate goal, but I think I’ve taken a good hard look at my game and my personal life and the things I do, the habits outside of that,” Wright said.

Reds captain Liam Wright is back to full fitness.Credit: Bradley Kanaris/Getty

“I think that’s really my focus, it’s on getting to this trial in two weeks ... then just take it step by step. I’m looking forward to seeing how far this team can go.

“One of the things I’ve really enjoyed with Les in the coaching team is I don’t believe we see a ceiling with this team ... there is no ceiling for how far we can try and go.

“That [the Wallabies] is the ultimate goal, it’s the aspiration, but I’m not going to be looking too far ahead.”

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