Joe Schmidt has stepped down as Wallabies coach following Saturday's 57-10 Nations Championship win over Italy in Perth, handing over to Les Kiss with a record of 12 wins from 31 Tests — a 61.29 percent losing rate that ranks as the worst for a Wallabies coach in 55 years.
The Perth win ended a six-match losing streak that Schmidt described in candid terms. "I haven't loved the results sometimes. In fact, I've been depressed about the results in some of those games," he said after the match.
His 38.71 percent winning return marginally edged Dave Rennie's 38.24 percent, but his losing record was appreciably worse than Rennie's 52.94 percent, making Schmidt's tenure statistically the most difficult since the professional era's early decades.
Schmidt, however, frames his three years in the context of what he inherited after Eddie Jones's second stint ended in the 2023 World Cup group stage. "It was a total clean-out after the World Cup. There were two other members of staff, so we had no coaches. We had no real support staff and a lot of the players either weren't available or had been left out and were teetering on the edge of heading overseas. I knew no one."
The high points of his tenure included a third-Test win over the British and Irish Lions and, the following week, a first Australian victory over the Springboks at Ellis Park since 1963. Schmidt singles out narrow losses at Eden Park against the All Blacks, the Cape Town reverse against the Springboks — after the Wallabies were in the contest late — and the controversial second Lions Test as his most painful moments.
"We actually showed that we could do some things," he said. "I've got regrets about things that didn't quite work out for us and, after 25 years of doing this professionally, I know that results are not the only visible demonstration of progress."
Schmidt also pointed to broader indicators: growing junior participation, competitive age-grade results including two recent wins over New Zealand at junior level, and the financial stabilisation aided by the Lions tour. Kiss inherits a squad Schmidt believes is better positioned for the 2027 home World Cup than it was when he arrived.