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Former Ireland coach and All Blacks assistant Joe Schmidt is poised to succeed Eddie Jones as Wallabies boss, with an announcement expected from Rugby Australia in the coming days.
Expressions of interest for the Wallabies head coach role closed on Friday but RA has been keen on Schmidt for some time.
Sources with knowledge of discussions, who requested anonymity in order to speak freely, told this masthead that only the paperwork had to be finalised before Schmidt was announced.
Schmidt, 58, coached Ireland from 2013 to 2019 and was instrumental in helping the national team climb to No.1 in the world rankings for the first time.
Ireland won the Six Nations three times under Schmidt and also beat the All Blacks twice. In 2016, Ireland defeated New Zealand for the first time in 111 years. Ireland suffered a 46-14 loss to New Zealand in the quarter-finals at the 2019 World Cup.
Schmidt transitioned into a role with World Rugby’s high-performance team. He then became an All Blacks selector before working as an assistant with New Zealand at the recent World Cup in France where the men in black finished runners-up to South Africa.
Jones signed a five-year deal at the start of 2023 but resigned in October after a horror run that saw the Wallabies win just two of their nine Tests last year and miss the knockout stages of a World Cup for the first time.
When RA named Peter Horne as its new director of high performance and confirmed that former Ireland director of rugby David Nucifora was going to come on board in an advisory capacity, it seemed likely Schmidt would come on board.
Schmidt is highly regarded by officials in Ireland and will bring stability to a role the way RA hoped Jones would.
The length of Schmidt’s deal is yet to be confirmed but it paves the way for him to oversee the Wallabies during next year’s British and Irish Lions series. Schmidt is set to go head-to-head with Lions coach Andy Farrell, who coached Ireland at last year’s World Cup.
Former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika and Leicester coach Dan McKellar had also been linked with the job.
Schmidt, who used to be an English teacher, will be the third Kiwi to coach the Wallabies after Robbie Deans and Dave Rennie.
The Wallabies’ first assignment this year will be a Test against Wales in Sydney on July 6.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-u...18-p5eycl.html