San Francisco Frontiers - Kiss has work cut out at Wallabies as Schmidt bids farewell

Schmidt's two-and-a-half year stint ended with a bang on Saturday when Australia ran in nine tries to crush Italy 57-10 in the Nations Championship at Perth.

It was their highest score during his tenure and snapped a six-game losing streak.

But it was also against an under-strength Italian team and culminated a reign that garnered just 12 wins from 31 Tests since he assumed control from Eddie Jones.

While credited with bringing stability and a new work ethic, Schmidt leaves the Wallabies ranked just eighth in the world -- a far cry from their glory days in the 1990s and early 2000s when they were regularly a top-three side.

"I think if you look back two-and-a-half years, I think we've definitely made progress," said Schmidt, who enjoyed huge success during a six-year assignment as Ireland coach.

"I think the players are more connected, the leaders are more vocal, and they are the critical mass internally.

"And I think our set-pieces are getting better. Our fundamentals around the clean carry, around our connection and defense, that was on evidence (against Italy)."

The New Zealander took over from Jones following their disastrous 2023 World Cup campaign when they failed to get out of the pool stage for the first time and slumped to 10th in the world.

After an initially promising start with wins against Wales and Georgia, an expected resurgence failed to materialise.

There were some bright spots with notable away wins over South Africa and England, but also plenty of lows, characterised by repeated failures to close out games after making strong starts.

Former 80-Test Wallaby Stirling Mortlock said he had been frustrated by the chopping and changing of the side with Schmidt using nine players in the key playmaking role in the last year alone.

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that that's probably a big cause of that inconsistency of performance," he told The Australian newspaper.

"So I think that's probably the one question mark on his tenure as coach."

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Victory over Italy at least ensured Schmidt avoided the ignominy of finishing with the worst winning percentage of any Wallabies coach in the professional era, narrowly ahead of Dave Rennie, who is now at the helm of the All Blacks.

Another former Wallaby, Drew Mitchell, said Schmidt should be judged on more than his winning percentage.

"From where we were in 2023, overall we are now looking like, when you look at our squad, we can compete with any team on its day," he told the same newspaper.

"It's just about competing for the full 80 minutes. That's probably the area that we need to get better at."

Former Queensland Reds coach Kiss will take charge for the first time when Australia take on Japan away on August 8, with little over a year to mould them into a World Cup-winning side.

That feat was last achieved in 1999 under Rod Macqueen.

Since then, Jones (2003, 2023), John Connolly (2007), Robbie Deans (2011) and Michael Cheika (2015, 2019) have all failed to lift the Webb Ellis Cup.

When he was appointed, Kiss said he had no intention to "rip and tear" at what Schmidt left him.

"I'm going to make sure I dovetail as much as I can and I'll bring my points of difference into play, but we have a lot of things in common," he said.

Kiss and Schmidt are long-time collaborators, notably as head coach and assistant with Ireland, where they won three Six Nations titles.

Z.Phillips--SFF