Joe Schmidt was in Melbourne’s west coaching Footscray RFC’s under-18s on Monday night, then conducting a 20-minute Q&A that ran to two hours. The next day he called together the Wallabies leaders and challenged them to set the standards at their Super Rugby clubs. By Wednesday he was deep in meetings with Queensland Reds boss Les Kiss, the coach who will take over the national side in July.
Schmidt is just off another call with Kiss when he arrives to speak with Guardian Australia, biceps bulging after a workout and eyes gleaming ahead of another day spent dragging the Wallabies back to respectability and priming them for the 2027 World Cup on home soil.
This relentless work ethic runs contrary to the title his grandchildren have given him.
“They call me Grandpa Joe and I don’t like it,” says Schmidt, 60. “Grandpa Joe is the old bloke in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory who never gets out of bed, whereas I never find enough hours in the day to get everything done that I want to.”
This gentle gripe should be music to the ears of Wallabies fans. A golden ticket got old Joe Bucket dancing like David Campese. A gold jersey still does the same for Schmidt.
“Australian rugby has given me a great group of men who are totally invested and utterly determined to represent that jersey the best they can,” Schmidt says. “We haven’t got it right all the time but this side is hungry to earn the support of the country, so for me it’s about keeping those connections and growing the positives because we didn’t get the results in 2025 and we have to get some this season.”
It says plenty for the high esteem Schmidt is held in at Rugby Australia that he avoided blame for the Wallabies’ fade to black last year: a 5-10 win-loss season that finished in November with four straight defeats on the first winless tour of Europe in 67 years.
“But even at the back end of a long season we scored three tries against Ireland and five against France,” he says. “Eight tries against two of the world’s best sides.”
Australia are still ranked eighth in the world but Schmidt’s glass is defiantly half full. “Players are improving, performances are building and we’re developing real depth. If everyone’s fit, we’ve got a great side. Every game of that Northern Tour was still winnable at the 60-minute mark, but when we lost players and combinations we were vulnerable. We let teams off the hook and couldn’t find a ‘change-up’ in the final 20.”
Last year started brightly with a last-gasp victory over Fiji before a bumper British & Irish Lions series was lost 2-1 amid a controversial refereeing decision late in the second Test. “No one gave us a hope against the Lions, and in the end it was one point difference across three Tests,” says Schmidt. “Then we beat Argentina on the bell in Townsville and defied 62 years of history to beat South Africa at Ellis Park.”
The latter result against the Springboks last August proves Schmidt’s belief that “you don’t have to be the best in the world, just the best on the day”. Recovering from 0-22 to score six straight tries and beat the world champions 38-22 is Schmidt’s crowning glory during his time with the Wallabies.
“But those victories are high points, not end points,” he says. “At the leaders meeting on Tuesday all the guys are very keen to make sure we hit the ground running in 2026.”
Schmidt has three Tests left as Wallabies coach, against Ireland, France and Italy. His farewell lap starts in style with a clash against his old side in Sydney on 4 July. Ireland were No 9 in the world when Schmidt was appointed coach in 2013 and in six years he took them to No 1, winning three Six Nations championships. “That’s not to say there’s an ambush coming, just a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes,” he says.
A win-loss record as Wallabies coach (11-17, 43%) pales against his results with Ireland (55-22, 71%) but he and Kiss are plotting a boilover before a handover. “I won two Six Nations with Les – he ran our defence and did an outstanding job,” says Schmidt. “He was with us for meetings in Canberra last week and things are transitioning pretty seamlessly. He’ll spend the week with us before the Brisbane and Perth Tests too.”
Schmidt was hands-off in RA appointing his successor but safe to say he approves. “I wasn’t involved in that process,” he says. “But they’ve fallen upon a really good candidate so Wallabies fans should be excited. Les is 100% invested with very broad experience. We’re great mates and I’ll always be around to help him but when he takes over I’ll give him a degree of separation so Les can set his own agenda and forge ahead.”
Having refused to tender for the newly filled All Blacks job out of loyalty to Australia, RA remain confident they can yet keep Schmidt in the fold in some hands-on form.
For now, after fulfilling duties to his Wallabies family he will return to his real kin: wife, Kellie, and their kids, Abby, Tim, Ella and youngest, Luke, whose serious epilepsy condition has made Schmidt’s service and sacrifice to the gold jersey all the greater.
“I’ve got regrets about leaving,” he says. “I feel like a lot of unseen positives are about to become visible.” A few have been waving at Schmidt as they walk by: Mark Nawaquinatawase and Angus Crichton (returning to rugby in 2027) and golden boy Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii (one of 16 to whom he gave Wallabies debuts in 2024). Then there’s NRL convert Zac Lomax (“great in the aerial battle, massively committed”).
Schmidt’s eyes are starting to gleam as his devotion to the team he built is roused. But he snaps out of it. “The first thing my wife and I will do is fly to Ireland to see our new grandson so I’m saying no to everything at the moment … but if a window opens and my wife is sick of me being home and Luke is in a good place and still making progress, then who knows? One thing I’ve learned in this life is to never say never.”
It’s a lesson the Wallabies must heed as they start life without their Grandpa Joe.
