Deal done with Les Kiss to be named next Wallabies coach

The protracted process to secure Les Kiss as the next Wallabies coach has been finalised with the Queensland Reds mentor to be the fifth man to fill the seat in six years.

Kiss is expected to front the media in Sydney on Wednesday before flying to Suva to join the Reds squad ahead of Saturday’s crucial Super Rugby Pacific encounter with Fiji.

He is contracted until the end of next year at the Reds, who sit fourth and are eyeing a title push this season.

But it’s understood the Queensland Rugby Union and Rugby Australia have negotiated a release for the former representative rugby league winger, who arrived at Ballymore last year after two decades in Europe.

He’ll replace Joe Schmidt, who decided in February that he would vacate the role for family reasons after the Rugby Championship ends in October.

The appointment comes ahead of the 2027 World Cup in Australia and with the Wallabies, still ranked No.8 in the world, slowly gaining traction after a horror 2023 cup campaign under Eddie Jones when they were knocked out at the group stage for the first time.

Tasked with reviewing the state of the side after that failure, former Wallabies skipper Andrew Slack said Kiss’s appointment was the obvious decision.

“There was definitely the feeling we needed to get common sense back into the arrangement and Joe has brought common sense to the Wallabies and Les the same at Ballymore,” he told AAP last week.

“You’re not going from a leg-spinner to a fast bowler, sort of thing.

“Every coach has an element of rant and rave but there’s a calmness to Joe that I think is what was needed.

“And calm doesn’t always mean soft and lovey-dovey. I’m sure he gets stuck into them.

“That calmness, I think, is a necessity for guys in the Australian environment to work at their best.

“Both men have been what rugby’s needed after 2023, when it was on the nose.”

Kiss was a Queensland State of Origin and Kangaroos winger, who played 100 games for the North Sydney Bears in the 1980s and 1990s.

After a brief stint coaching rugby league he fell into a role as the Springboks’ defence coach, before assisting the NSW Waratahs and then heading to Europe.

There he had success alongside Schmidt with Ireland before becoming director of rugby at Irish province Ulster.

A move to England to coach London Irish was swiftly ended when the club hit financial issues in 2023, with Kiss swooping when Brad Thorn left his post at the Reds.

Kiss’s resume has prompted widespread endorsement and he will inherit a solid core of Wallabies who have committed until at least the 2027 showpiece.

Jones, signed to a five-year deal, lasted just nine months after Dave Rennie was sensationally axed ahead of the 2023 World Cup.

New Zealander Rennie coached the side during the COVID-19 period, stepping into the role after Michael Cheika quit following their heavy 2019 World Cup quarter-final loss to England.