Rugby Australia remains hopeful Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt will re-sign through to the 2027 World Cup, but the governing body has already started contingency planning should the New Zealander opt to bow out in August.

In fact, the planning is already months down the road.

The Roar understands RA has for weeks been quietly speaking to figures in the background, including Queensland Reds coach Les Kiss, should Schmidt leave following next year’s crucial British and Irish Lions series.

That hasn’t necessarily gone down well at Ballymore, but nor are Reds officials about to start banging on the RA doors at Moore Park demanding answers as to why the national body is talking to their man on the quiet.

But with Kiss just one year into a three-year deal, the Reds don’t want to be caught on the hop either, especially given the former State of Origin winger breathed a huge amount of positivity back into the Sunshine State with the side’s improvement on the field despite yet another quarter-final finish.

That prospect might seem premature but informed sources have told The Roar that Schmidt is more likely to call time on his association with the Wallabies than not despite enjoying his first year in charge of the men in gold.

While it would seem odd for a coach to turn down the opportunity to coach a two-time World Cup-winning side at a home World Cup in 2027, Schmidt’s already been to the past three showpiece events, including two as a head coach.

It’s also three years away and Schmidt made it crystal clear when he joined the Wallabies that he was signing a short-term deal because of his son’s well-documented health condition.

What’s there to gain for Schmidt, too? Despite RA’s lofty goals documented in their five-year strategic plan, the Wallabies remain long odds to make the final let alone win it despite an improved output on the field where Schmidt’s side won six of 13 Tests in 2024.

Schmidt is expected to return to Australia in the coming days and RA CEO Phil Waugh said getting some clarity of the New Zealander’s intensions was important.

“We’ve been working through with Joe, he’s still overseas and coming back this week,” Waugh told reporters on Tuesday. “So we expect to sit down with Joe [once he’s back] and work through the plan post-Lions, as we’ve said.

“And I think a really important point that we continue to make is that we do what we say we are going to do, and Joe was always committed through to the end of the Lions. We’ve done a lot of heavy lifting [turning things around], there is a lot of progress in the Wallaby environment, he has surrounded himself with really good people, and now it’s important to give players and staff certainty post the Lions, and we’ll work through that over the next few weeks.”

Waugh, who was up in the United Kingdom and Ireland during the Wallabies’ Grand Slam tour last month, has previously said he would be prepared to be creative if it meant locking Schmidt’s services in through to the World Cup.

What that means isn’t entirely clear, but it’s thought Waugh would allow Schmidt to spend more time in New Zealand and perhaps miss a tour along the road if it made the decision easier.

Asked how regularly he spoke with Schmidt during the tour to sound out his long-term thinking, Waugh said he chose to give the head coach some distance but emphasised that the success of the Wallabies wasn’t simply down to one person.

“The focus in the north was about performance on the Saturday or the Sunday or whenever we were playing a Test match, so we weren’t getting too far ahead of ourselves,” Waugh said.

“In regards to ‘creative’, obviously there is a lot that goes into Joe’s future with commitments outside of rugby as well as commitments to Rugby Australia, and I think it’s actually around what’s the right environment, it’s not just about the head coach, it’s about the environment that he creates and what talent they bring into the environment, and we’ll sit down and go through all of those different options over the next couple of weeks.”

After three coaches in as many years, RA’s strong preference is not to add a fourth in 2025.

However, if they were forced to go down that route, RA would likely bring in that person to shadow Schmidt during the Lions. It’s what the Australian Rugby Union did in 2001 when Eddie Jones spent time in the Wallabies camp to try and ensure the transition from Rod Macqueen was as smooth as possible.

Although RA currently has four solid head coaches leading its four Super Rugby sides, three of whom are thought of as possible Wallabies mentors in the coming years, Kiss is the strong favourite to take over from Schmidt if he pulls the pin sooner rather than later.

Kiss not only has two decades of coaching experience to draw upon, he also worked alongside Schmidt with the Irish side for three years. That came after a connection built during Schmidt’s time at Leinster, where Kiss would go round to all the provinces in Ireland in his role with the national side.

Kiss even briefly poked his head into Wallabies camp in November ahead of the England Test during a trip to see some of his family who remain in the United Kingdom.

Undoubtedly RA would have wanted another year or two to get its ducks in a row, especially given none of the current crop of coaches have won any major piece of silverware. Indeed, it’s the one knock on Kiss despite the obvious growth of the Reds in the past 12 months.

Waugh said it was pleasing to have some strong candidates at home emerging after a period where Australia’s coaching stocks had fallen.

“We’re working through what that may look like, which is an appropriate business practice for when you don’t have certainty of an outcome,” Waugh said.

“I think Joe was quite overt that he saw his responsibility as elevating Australian rugby but also providing a platform for an Australian to take over when he does finish up.

“If you look across the four Super Rugby clubs now, the four coaches across the system; Simon Cron’s a very strong coach at the Force; Stephen Larkham at the Brumbies; Les Kiss in Queensland and Dan McKellar in NSW; we’ve got four very strong coaches in our system.

“So I think that we’re well positioned, but it’s not just about the Wallaby coach, it’s about building capability across the system, which I think we’ve done in the last 12 months.”