Wallabies World Cup review lands on Joe Schmidt's desk hours before arrival
New Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt is yet to view the findings of a report into the side's World Cup failings that was submitted on the day he was ushered into the role.
Former Wallabies Andrew Slack and Justin Harrison, as well as high-performance and coaching consultant Darlene Harrison were charged with leading an external review into the side's early exit from last year's tournament in France.
That review, announced on November 2, hit Rugby Australia (RA) chief executive Phil Waugh's desk on Friday just hours before he sat next to Schmidt to officially announce him as Eddie Jones's replacement.
"The review has been finalised and the board were briefed on the review findings," Waugh told AAP on Friday.
"We're just working through that now with the executive team and with the board and then we'll work through how we publish the findings and go from there.
"It's very fresh on our desk so we're just going through it and ensuring that the appropriate disclosures are made.
"When you do a review, you want to ensure there's absolute confidence from those that are giving you information, so you've just got to make sure that information is appropriate."
Waugh said Schmidt had not yet seen the report.
The New Zealander and former Ireland mentor has signed a deal up to and including the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia.
Coach Jones' exit was part of RA's administrative overhaul following the France flop, with Dan Herbert replacing Hamish McLennan as chairman and Peter Horne joining the organisation as high-performance boss.
Former Wallaby David Nucifora, who as high-performance chief alongside Schmidt turned Ireland into a world-leading force, has also been lured back into the fold.
How their vision sits alongside the review's findings remains to be seen, with Schmidt set to visit Super Rugby clubs and familiarise himself with players ahead of Wales's visit in July.
"I can't promise anything other than I'll be working really hard to try to make it as successful as it can be and try to get some early wins on the board," Schmidt said.
"And those wins may be just that we perform better, even if we don't quite get the outcomes we're looking for.
"But I'm also a realistic coach. You're judged on your outcomes and you live or die by them."
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I find these articles so very interesting, giving a much more in depth series of insights than one can ever gain from “desktop” research. It is very significant that it is this English man that Joe Schmidt has turned to build the basement stability and reliability from the WB forwards that was so shredded during the Jones debacle. With his long period in Ireland, with both Leinster and Ireland, Schmidt will know Geoff Parling’s qualities as a player well, and he will have gone over, with a fine tooth comb, the mans time in Australia. This, one feels, will prove to be a shrewd decision. I’m particularly interested in Parling’s comments about the lineout, especially the differences in approach between the hemispheres. He talks about the impact of weather conditions on the type of lineout tactics employed. He is the right man to have preparing for a wet and windy game at Eden Park, the “Cake Tin”, or in Christchuch, or for that matter in Capetown. I must confess to being surprised by this comment though re Will Skelton: “ Is he a lineout jumper? No. But the lineout starts on the ground – contact work, lifting, utilising that massive body at the maul.” Geoff is spot on about the work Will does on the ground. But I would contest the view that he is not a lineout jumper. I think I have commented before on this one, so won’t go further than referring to the end of the last Cup Final in Dublin, LAR using Will on maybe 3 occasions at No 2 in the lineout. And I have seen him used by LAR in Top 14, and never seen him beaten to the catch…but in reality that would only be a total of 10 times max.
Go to commentsDaltons a great guy and can lead at any level with that humility
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