What Wallabies are hearing about Joe Schmidt as All Blacks coach after Scott Robertson's shock sacking

It appears the Wallabies will avoid the nightmare scenario of Joe Schmidt returning to haunt them at next year's Rugby World Cup.

Scott Robertson's shock sacking as All Blacks coach, despite New Zealand sitting at No.2 in the world rankings, has thrown an element of chaos into the mix ahead of the 2027 tournament in Australia.

New Zealand Rugby on Monday confirmed it would only consider Kiwi coaches for a job that ranks behind only the prime minister in terms of scrutiny and perceived national importance.

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Highlanders boss Jamie Joseph and ex-Australia coach Dave Rennie are the early front-runners.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that NZR "sounded out" Wallabies mentor Schmidt about his interest in making a return to the All Blacks.

"Schmidt has made it known he is fully committed to the Wallabies and Australian rugby and will not be switching loyalties mid-cycle," the Herald relayed.

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Schmidt served as an assistant to Ian Foster at the 2023 World Cup before joining Australia.

The New Zealander will lead the Wallabies in the July Tests against Ireland, France and Italy before handing the reins to Les Kiss.

Schmidt is then expected to return home to spend more time with his family, including son Luke, who suffers from severe epilepsy.

The prospect of trying again to win a World Cup with New Zealand would undoubtedly hold some appeal.

But he is expected to stay loyal to Kiss and Rugby Australia, who hope to keep his intellectual property inside the green and gold tent - potentially in a consultancy role.

"Yeah, hopefully not. From what I heard, he isn't (rejoining the All Blacks), which is good, he's saying to us," Wallabies star Max Jorgensen told Wide World of Sports during a Stan Sport promotional trip to the Australian Open.

"Through the grapevine, that's what I've heard, but yeah, nothing directly."

Jorgensen was as surprised as the rest of the rugby world when Robertson got his marching orders despite winning 20 of his 27 Tests.

"Yeah, I was a bit shocked," he said after watching Novak Djokovic strut his stuff on Rod Laver Arena.

"But that's the harsh reality of our job and being a coach, that it can end like that very quickly. I wish them well with whoever coach they get next."

Ex-Wallabies coach John Connolly told Nine mastheads that RA had botched its Schmidt-Kiss handover.

Kiss will guide the Queensland Reds through the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season before starting his Wallabies tenure against Eddie Jones' Japan in August.

"The current coach should've stepped aside, Queensland should've released him," Connolly said.

"You might have the core of the side, but a third isn't working because they've lost seven of the last eight games. He's a good bloke, I think he'll create a great environment, but working out which players he wants to keep – will it be the same Joe has?

"These are decisions that had to be made in February by the new coach... the worry for Les Kiss is he's been an assistant coach in a number of places but never been a successful coach – he's finished fifth (with the Reds) a couple of times.

"That doesn't mean he's not going to be successful, but he should've taken over immediately in January, February, and put his own assistant coaches in place. We need them preparing the whole year."

NSW Waratahs ace Jorgensen told WWOS that Kiss had built a degree of rapport with the non-Reds players in the national squad.

"He was on the Spring Tour, he was popping in and out, so we're starting to build some relationships there," he said.

"I've had a few conversations with him, and he seems like a great guy. And from everything I've heard, he's a helluva coach as well, so it's really exciting to have him in.

"From everything I've heard from all the Reds boys, boys who've been coached by him before, and also Joe, speaking on it, he's one helluva coach. I'm really looking forward to having him and stuff I can learn off him.

"Really excited for him."