Joe Schmidt is stepping away from his saviour role at the end of this year's Rugby Championship. The good lord giveth, the good lord taketh away.
His decision to leave is of no surprise considering his strong desire to spend more time with his family, which made his initial decision to coach the Wallabies a tad odd. He’d spent a number of years coaching internationally. Had finally given it away to return to New Zealand, only to be lured back into a role he obviously loves and undoubtedly excels in.
He’s given the Wallabies a tiny bit of room to name his successor, choosing to leave the job after the Bledisloe in Perth as opposed to the end of the Lions series.
His time in the role has expressed in action some key points that will leave Aussie rugby feeling A) good about itself and B) terrible about itself.
Within 6 years, the Wallabies will have had 5 coaches. Cheika, Rennie, Jones, Schmidt, and whoever gets the new gig.
As they say, consistently inconsistent. Their selection process has been a crapshoot, no wonder the team’s results have followed suit. The players don’t know what’s around every corner, the administrators don’t even know what a corner is, the fans are know that around every corner is a cul-de-sac. Awful across all metrics.
So, the selection process has been a chaotic pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey exercise without a tail to hold, or an ass to stick it on.
However, there is a resounding positive here, as proven by Schmidt. Despite protestations that Australian rugby lacks the required cattle, after their last Northern Tour, we’ve found out that even though their stock isn’t in ranch-style abundance, they are there.
They just need someone with a clue to set them on their away. A man like Joe.
Is Leon McDonald the man riding in to save the day?
Wouldn’t surprise me at all.
It also wouldn’t surprise me if Aussie Rugby got rid of him before he had a chance to anything at all.
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15 min