‘Loyalty’ to Wallabies meant Joe Schmidt didn’t entertain All Blacks job

Joe Schmidt has confirmed he will not be a part of the new All Blacks coaching setup, the Kiwi saying he was bound by “loyalty” not to immediately jump back across the Tasman when his contract with Rugby Australia concludes in July.

The prospect of Schmidt rejoining the team he helped turn into Rugby World Cup finalists in 2023 was raised following Scott Robertson’s sacking last month, particularly given he had just six months left on his stint in Australia.

But the 60-year-old on Friday ended the speculation once and for all, citing the bonds he had made with his Wallabies players and staff as the key reason why he wouldn’t be trading gold for black.

“No [I won’t be applying], it’s an incredible job, obviously having been involved with the All Blacks before and I thoroughly enjoyed it,” Schmidt told a small group of reporters in Sydney.

“[But] You build a loyalty to the players you’re working with and the staff that you’re working with. And even to the people who’ve supported us; Allianz Stadium [in Sydney] last year when we played the Argentinians, it was fantastic. We didn’t quite get there in the end, but it was the same in Townsville and Newcastle… and Perth for the ABs game.

“The support during the Lions series, you can’t just, well I feel like I can’t just walk out and swap sides. And it wasn’t like that with the All Blacks, I finished with the All Blacks when [RA director or high performance] Peter Horne sort of got me to come over to the Australian side.”

The All Blacks job is therefore expected to be a race in two, between Jamie Joseph and Dave Rennie, with both coaches meeting the criteria New Zealand Rugby has set for applicants.

Schmidt said the successful coach would walk into an environment that was ready for success, despite Robertson’s sacking, with the All Blacks having achieved a 10-3 win-loss record in 2025.

“I think whoever gets the job, the All Blacks are always formidable, their player pool is evidenced by the way they finish in Super Rugby on a regular basis, playing the finals,” Schmidt said. “And we’d love to get a team in there this year into the finals because I think there’s a few teams that are building really well.

“So, I guess with the loyalty that you have to the group you’re working with, you can’t suddenly swap sides. That’s how I feel anyway.”

While RA officials hope to have Schmidt involved in some capacity through to the 2027 World Cup, the Kiwi is planning to step away completely, at least for a while, when incoming Wallabies coach Les Kiss takes over in July following the first three Tests of the Nations Championship.

Schmidt plans to travel north to visit family in Dublin, giving Kiss clean air to begin his reign as Wallabies coach, which will begin with two Tests against Japan and a two-game series with the Pumas in Argentina.

But the prospect of Schmidt serving as a sounding board for Kiss remains and while NRL recuit Angus Crichton won’t be his prerogative, the Kiwi said there was merit in Crichton following the same path as Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii back in 2024.

Whether Crichton heads off on the spring tour will come down to several factors, but Schmidt said the Wallabies already a midfield dynamo in Len Ikitau.

“What you ideally want to be able to do, and what we tended to do when Joseph was when we trained across the road at [Victoria Barracks] and he slotted in pretty well right from the start,” Schmidt said. “So that that actually worked out okay for us, and Hunter Paisami was unavailable at that stage so [there was a spot at 12]; so we might have favored the local who had already invested [if he was available].

“But so that I felt worked pretty well with Joseph and obviously that game was a really memorable occasion, his debut against England.

“So I think with Angus Crichton, with Lenny being so influential and I thought he really deserved some of the some of the recognition he got last year, it would be hard to see Lenny being out of the picture.

“It would depend on how things panned out but one of the real advantages of bringing a guy like Angus in early is that he can still train with the team; there’s a lot of time spent on the grass that might not be the weekend when the cameras are on the players. And so even orientating himself during that period might be part of the transition, but as I say it’ll be a quorum of people led by Les that decide that.”

Following a camp in January, the final months of the Schmidt Wallabies era are underway.

Asked what he had said to Vern Cotter, another Kiwi who will head east and take charge of the Reds next season, to help sell his countryman on the direction of Australian rugby, Schmidt said he could feel a genuine buzz around the game ahead of the World Cup.

“The interest in the game still seems really strong,” Schmidt said. “We had sold-out stadiums and some massive crowds in TRC [Rugby Championship] here, for the Argentinians, the All Blacks games are always big sellers, and the Lions games are occasions, they go beyond a fixture in a lot of ways.

“But I felt we earnt some support through that period, it may have slipped a little bit in November, but we’ll be hoping that first up here at Allianz Stadium, [against] Ireland, I think it will be that people demonstrate their support for the game and get along.

“A year out from the World Cup, there is a real window of opportunity for the game to get as much coverage and a real connection with the people who support the game.”