Next Wallabies coach Les Kiss: a mongrel mix of league and union, coach and strategist

Today at 10:09 PM

An extended transition from the Joe Schmidt era should be smooth before Kiss sets about solving one of the great brain strainers in sport: how to return Australian rugby to greatness

Les Kiss was an injured rugby league winger looking down the barrel of retirement and a day job flogging poker machines when the idea of a career in coaching struck. The art of gelling many disparate personalities into one united team intrigued him. "On the sideline I saw the game differently," he realised. "I started thinking deeply."

The ex-North Sydney Bear turned Queensland Reds boss has plenty to think on now, having been appointed as Wallabies coach from mid-2026. The 60-year-old must now unpuzzle one of the greatest brain strainers in Australian sport: how to return the Wallabies – a rugby superpower now ranked eighth in the world – to greatness.