I can solely want Rugby Australia good luck.
The appointment of Les Kiss as Wallabies head coach doesn’t shock me. I imply, how may it? It’s been signposted for weeks now.
However I’m left saddened by what his elevation says concerning the state of the sport in Australia.
Kiss, with the best will in the world, has pretty much coached no-one and won nothing.
Doesn’t mean he can’t coach. Doesn’t mean he’s not a great bloke. Doesn’t mean the Wallabies won’t win under him, when he takes charge a year or so from now.
But it does mean he’s been employed on hope, as much as anything else.
I’ll veer off for a moment, before I get back to Rugby Australia (RA) and Kiss.
I don’t see the revival that’s apparently occurred in Australian rugby. I see they have a better distribution of talent across Super Rugby Pacific and I see that their teams are often hard to beat at home, but isn’t that the least we should expect in the wake of the Melbourne Rebels’ demise?
RA remains in massive debt, which they hope the hosting of the British & Irish Lions and then the 2027 Rugby World Cup will help remedy.
I’d try to be patient in that regard, if I was RA. But given the eye-watering sums being asked for Lions tickets this year, it appears they want money in the bank real quick.
On the park, how many folk actually believe the Wallabies can beat the Lions in their upcoming series? In the event Australia can’t make the games contests, I don’t see how anyone could make an argument that their rugby is significantly improving.
Having Joe Schmidt as Wallabies coach, until Kiss takes over, is a help. I won’t pretend it’s not, given Schmidt’s proven expertise in player development.
Kiss once worked for Joe Schmidt, at Ireland. Doesn’t mean he’s Joe Schmidt though, does it?
Or Eddie Jones or Dave Rennie, Robbie Deans, John Connolly, Rod Macqueen. I could go on.
RA has a history of appointing men of experience, in recent decades. Men who’ve won things. Men who aren’t still establishing their head coaching credentials.
The uncharitable might ask ‘well, how’s that worked out for them?’ Times have indeed been tough since Macqueen – and the first incarnation of Jones – and maybe appointing a relative novice does indicate a desire by RA to do something different in an effort to achieve different results.
I want the Wallabies to be good. I’d love Kiss to succeed. I just think giving him this job represents a sizable punt by RA.
I’m getting so old now that I can say, with hand on heart, that I watched Kiss play rugby league for North Sydney, Queensland and Australia. I’ve genuinely admired his progression from that code into defence coaching in rugby and now his gig at the Reds.
It’s a great story and testament to Kiss’ ability to learn and adapt.
And there’s the rub.
Coaching an elite test rugby team – or one like Australia that aspires to be great again – is really a job for men that are the finished article.
Again, that doesn’t mean Kiss won’t succeed. But, if he does, I can’t help feeling that’ll owe more to good luck than good management.
