Latest news with #ex-Wallabies
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Next Wallabies coach Les Kiss: a mongrel mix of league and union, coach and strategist
Incoming Wallabies head coach Les Kiss at Rugby Australia's HQ in Sydney. Photograph: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. Related: Les Kiss confirmed as next Wallabies coach with Joe Schmidt to stay on until 2026 That challenge falls to a man who has never played a rugby union game in his life. The Bundaberg boy's coaching career is neatly split between 30 years in league – including four Origins for Queensland and four Tests for Australia – and almost as long coaching union, including key roles with the Ireland and South Africa squads. Yet Wednesday's announcement, after a three-month recruitment drive, is welcome news to Australian rugby fans. In Kiss they have a face and philosophy to hang their hopes on in the Wallabies' quest to win the 2027 World Cup on home soil. They also get the reassurance of current coach Joe Schmidt continuing after the British & Irish Lions tour this winter and the Rugby Championship Tests in Spring. Schmidt, who has patched the Wallabies' wounds with a 6-7 win-loss record in 2024, had initially intended to hand over the reins before the Wallabies' revenge mission to Tokyo on 25 October. There, Australia are slated to take on a Japan side coached by Eddie Jones, the ex-Wallabies coach whose diabolical nine-month reign delivered the men in gold to the doldrums of a pool-stage elimination at the 2023 World Cup. However, despite caring for a son with severe epilepsy at home in New Zealand, Schmidt will coach on until June 2026 to allow Kiss to finish his three-year contract with the Reds, joining forces to co-marshall the Wallabies' tilt at the inaugural 2026 Nations Championship between the best sides in Europe and the rest of the world. Unlike the torrid baton changes between five Wallabies coaches these past six years, this extended transition from Schmidt to Kiss should be smooth. The two are old friends and both cool heads who did this handover in reverse when Schmidt took the Ireland head coach role in 2013 after Kiss had filled in as interim boss for two Tests. Calm, cunning and clever, Kiss was already a coach to watch. After joining Ireland as defensive coach in 2009, he transformed Declan Kidney's side into the world No 1, inspiring a first Six Nations grand slam in 61 years. Schmidt took what Kiss built and won three more titles, including a second grand slam in 2018. That golden Schmidt-Kiss era at Ireland also forged a battalion of players that turned beating the All Blacks into a habit, a feat the Wallabies haven't managed this century. If Kiss can win back the 2026 Bledisloe Cup – a trophy not smeared with Australian fingerprints since 2002 – before conquering the world in 2027, his legend is assured. Kiss is a uniquely Australian mongrel mix of league and union, coach and strategist. At the Bears, the wiry winger had speed and scored tries but tackling was his forte. Kiss was a small man who hit very big. It's why Frank Ponissi, the Melbourne Storm director of football for 17 years, tipped him into a gig with the Springboks in 2001. A six week stint as defence coach lasted two years and earned Kiss his start in union. The diehard leaguie loved rugby's alchemy of different sizes and shapes of players. Impressed, 1991 World Cup-winning Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer brought Kiss home as his Waratahs second-in-command in 2002. A one-year coaching contract was renewed six times. Related: Bonuses for Wallabies wins in Rugby Australia's new $240m TV broadcast deal Work ethic is a Kiss a trademark. Wayne Bennett taught him that representing your state or country isn't a summit but a base camp. You've earned the jersey, but you haven't won anything. That 'words aren't deeds' ethos fuelled a long apprenticeship in Europe, a decade in Ireland then five years coaching London Irish in England. Since coming home and taking over the Reds in 2024, Kiss has blossomed quickly. Last year the Reds finished fifth, their best Super Rugby result since 2013. This year they sit fourth with a 6-3 record built on a blitzkrieg defence that is drawing record crowds – a ray of sunshine for a code stuck in a 25-year storm of debt and defeat. Now the die is cast. Despite Kiss having no international clause in his Reds contract, RA has bypassed two highly-credentialed former Wallabies assistants in Waratahs coach Dan McKellar and Brumbies boss Stephen Larkham to elevate a league winger to the top job in Australian rugby union. Kiss the Kangaroo is now the Wallabies coach.
Daily Mail
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Rocky Elsom's father reveals update on ex-Wallabies captain who remains in HIDING overseas after international arrest warrant
The father of former Wallabies captain Rocky Elsom has confirmed his son is 'safe and well' - despite an international arrest warrant being issued for the 42-year-old in March following alleged misuse of corporate assets when previously president of French club Narbonne. Robbie Elsom - aged 80 - then revealed why he is eyeing off a stint in politics as the One Nation MP for the seat of Ryan in Brisbane 's west ahead of Saturday's federal election. In an extensive interview with Daily Mail Australia, Elsom snr said he had been in contact with the 75-Test veteran, but for obvious reasons remained tight-lipped on his current whereabouts. 'He is doing OK, is safe and well, but will remain in hiding,' he said of the high-profile fugitive. 'If you look at his (court case) it was like a boxing bout, but he won the first round following an acquittal. 'A number of the charges were thrown out, which is crucial. 'Rocky desperately wants to clear his name, but as you can understand, these things take time. 'He is completely innocent, they (French government) had to point the finger at someone.' Earlier this year, the decorated ex-Wallabies skipper was sentenced to two years in prison by a French court for allegedly misusing corporate assets during his time as club president of Narbonne between 2015 and 2016. He was also fined 100,000 euros ($A172,346), with half the sum suspended. Elsom went on trial for allegedly embezzling club funds by making unjustified expenditures to pay a coach or a general manager who was living in Australia at the time. He was acquitted on charges of forgery and use of forgery but was ordered to pay 230,000 euros ($A396,396) in compensation to the club's liquidator. His lawyer Yann Le Bras appealed the outcome. During a trial in February, the prosecutor requested a three-year prison sentence and a fine of 630,000 euros ($A1.1 million). In a previous trial in October last year, Elsom was sentenced to five years in prison, but did not attend the hearing. Elsom has been the subject of an international arrest warrant since that conviction. As permitted by French law, Elsom requested to be retried with legal representation. He had been living in Ireland since August 2024 and fled the country after an international arrest warrant was issued against him. He denied any wrongdoing and said that under his leadership Narbonne was in a healthy financial position. '(Narbonne) achieved solid profits, had good sporting results, and remained in Pro D2 (the second tier of French rugby) until 2016 and beyond,' he said in a statement in October. 'It seems that I have been targeted as a scapegoat for the future mismanagement of this famous rugby club.' Narbonne went into liquidation in 2018 and now competes in the third-tier Fédérale league. The 42-year-old said in an interview four months ago on YouTube that he left immediately with only a single backpack when he found out that Ireland was legally obliged to extradite him to France. Meanwhile, his father Robbie Elsom will contest the seat of Ryan in Brisbane's west on Saturday as a One Nation candidate When he gave the interview to Mark Bouris from a hidden location, he said he had not been informed there was a public trial in October. 'This is a really important part of it. I didn't know a court case was on and there was no possible way for me to know,' he said. Meanwhile, his father Robbie Elsom will contest the seat of Ryan in Brisbane's west on Saturday as a One Nation candidate. The father of nine has no background in politics, but wants 'the nation to be better run.' 'I've been involved in business since I was 18, and I've never seen Australia in a worse state,' he said. 'From the cost of living, immigration, petrol prices, house properties being out of simply have to change.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Next Wallabies coach Les Kiss: a mongrel mix of league and union, coach and strategist
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. Advertisement Related: Les Kiss confirmed as next Wallabies coach with Joe Schmidt to stay on until 2026 That challenge falls to a man who has never played a rugby union game in his life. The Bundaberg boy's coaching career is neatly split between 30 years in league – including four Origins for Queensland and four Tests for Australia – and almost as long coaching union, including key roles with the Ireland and South Africa squads. Yet Wednesday's announcement, after a three-month recruitment drive, is welcome news to Australian rugby fans. In Kiss they have a face and philosophy to hang their hopes on in the Wallabies' quest to win the 2027 World Cup on home soil. They also get the reassurance of current coach Joe Schmidt continuing after the British & Irish Lions tour this winter and the Rugby Championship Tests in Spring. Schmidt, who has patched the Wallabies' wounds with a 6-7 win-loss record in 2024, had initially intended to hand over the reins before the Wallabies' revenge mission to Tokyo on 25 October. There, Australia are slated to take on a Japan side coached by Eddie Jones, the ex-Wallabies coach whose diabolical nine-month reign delivered the men in gold to the doldrums of a pool-stage elimination at the 2023 World Cup. Advertisement However, despite caring for a son with severe epilepsy at home in New Zealand, Schmidt will coach on until June 2026 to allow Kiss to finish his three-year contract with the Reds, joining forces to co-marshall the Wallabies' tilt at the inaugural 2026 Nations Championship between the best sides in Europe and the rest of the world. Unlike the torrid baton changes between five Wallabies coaches these past six years, this extended transition from Schmidt to Kiss should be smooth. The two are old friends and both cool heads who did this handover in reverse when Schmidt took the Ireland head coach role in 2013 after Kiss had filled in as interim boss for two Tests. Calm, cunning and clever, Kiss was already a coach to watch. After joining Ireland as defensive coach in 2009, he transformed Declan Kidney's side into the world No 1, inspiring a first Six Nations grand slam in 61 years. Schmidt took what Kiss built and won three more titles, including a second grand slam in 2018. That golden Schmidt-Kiss era at Ireland also forged a battalion of players that turned beating the All Blacks into a habit, a feat the Wallabies haven't managed this century. If Kiss can win back the 2026 Bledisloe Cup – a trophy not smeared with Australian fingerprints since 2002 – before conquering the world in 2027, his legend is assured. Advertisement Kiss is a uniquely Australian mongrel mix of league and union, coach and strategist. At the Bears, the wiry winger had speed and scored tries but tackling was his forte. Kiss was a small man who hit very big. It's why Frank Ponissi, the Melbourne Storm director of football for 17 years, tipped him into a gig with the Springboks in 2001. A six week stint as defence coach lasted two years and earned Kiss his start in union. The diehard leaguie loved rugby's alchemy of different sizes and shapes of players. Impressed, 1991 World Cup-winning Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer brought Kiss home as his Waratahs second-in-command in 2002. A one-year coaching contract was renewed six times. Related: Bonuses for Wallabies wins in Rugby Australia's new $240m TV broadcast deal Work ethic is a Kiss a trademark. Wayne Bennett taught him that representing your state or country isn't a summit but a base camp. You've earned the jersey, but you haven't won anything. That 'words aren't deeds' ethos fuelled a long apprenticeship in Europe, a decade in Ireland then five years coaching London Irish in England. Advertisement Since coming home and taking over the Reds in 2024, Kiss has blossomed quickly. Last year the Reds finished fifth, their best Super Rugby result since 2013. This year they sit fourth with a 6-3 record built on a blitzkrieg defence that is drawing record crowds – a ray of sunshine for a code stuck in a 25-year storm of debt and defeat. Now the die is cast. Despite Kiss having no international clause in his Reds contract, RA has bypassed two highly-credentialed former Wallabies assistants in Waratahs coach Dan McKellar and Brumbies boss Stephen Larkham to elevate a league winger to the top job in Australian rugby union. Kiss the Kangaroo is now the Wallabies coach.
The Guardian
30-04-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Next Wallabies coach Les Kiss: a mongrel mix of league and union, coach and strategist
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. That challenge falls to a man who has never played a rugby union game in his life. The Bundaberg boy's coaching career is neatly split between 30 years in league – including four Origins for Queensland and four Tests for Australia – and almost as long coaching union, including key roles with the Ireland and South Africa squads. Yet Wednesday's announcement, after a three-month recruitment drive, is welcome news to Australian rugby fans. In Kiss they have a face and philosophy to hang their hopes on in the Wallabies' quest to win the 2027 World Cup on home soil. They also get the reassurance of current coach Joe Schmidt continuing after the British & Irish Lions tour this winter and the Rugby Championship Tests in Spring. Schmidt, who has patched the Wallabies' wounds with a 6-7 win-loss record in 2024, had initially intended to hand over the reins before the Wallabies' revenge mission to Tokyo on 25 October. There, Australia are slated to take on a Japan side coached by Eddie Jones, the ex-Wallabies coach whose diabolical nine-month reign delivered the men in gold to the doldrums of a pool-stage elimination at the 2023 World Cup. However, despite caring for a son with severe epilepsy at home in New Zealand, Schmidt will coach on until June 2026 to allow Kiss to finish his three-year contract with the Reds, joining forces to co-marshall the Wallabies' tilt at the inaugural 2026 Nations Championship between the best sides in Europe and the rest of the world. Unlike the torrid baton changes between five Wallabies coaches these past six years, this extended transition from Schmidt to Kiss should be smooth. The two are old friends and both cool heads who did this handover in reverse when Schmidt took the Ireland head coach role in 2013 after Kiss had filled in as interim boss for two Tests. Calm, cunning and clever, Kiss was already a coach to watch. After joining Ireland as defensive coach in 2009, he transformed Declan Kidney's side into the world No 1, inspiring a first Six Nations grand slam in 61 years. Schmidt took what Kiss built and won three more titles, including a second grand slam in 2018. That golden Schmidt-Kiss era at Ireland also forged a battalion of players that turned beating the All Blacks into a habit, a feat the Wallabies haven't managed this century. If Kiss can win back the 2026 Bledisloe Cup – a trophy not smeared with Australian fingerprints since 2002 – before conquering the world in 2027, his legend is assured. Kiss is a uniquely Australian mongrel mix of league and union, coach and strategist. At the Bears, the wiry winger had speed and scored tries but tackling was his forte. Kiss was a small man who hit very big. It's why Frank Ponissi, the Melbourne Storm director of football for 17 years, tipped him into a gig with the Springboks in 2001. Sign up to The Breakdown The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewed after newsletter promotion A six week stint as defence coach lasted two years and earned Kiss his start in union. The diehard leaguie loved rugby's alchemy of different sizes and shapes of players. Impressed, 1991 World Cup-winning Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer brought Kiss home as his Waratahs second-in-command in 2002. A one-year coaching contract was renewed six times. Work ethic is a Kiss a trademark. Wayne Bennett taught him that representing your state or country isn't a summit but a base camp. You've earned the jersey, but you haven't won anything. That 'words aren't deeds' ethos fuelled a long apprenticeship in Europe, a decade in Ireland then five years coaching London Irish in England. Since coming home and taking over the Reds in 2024, Kiss has blossomed quickly. Last year the Reds finished fifth, their best Super Rugby result since 2013. This year they sit fourth with a 6-3 record built on a blitzkrieg defence that is drawing record crowds – a ray of sunshine for a code stuck in a 25-year storm of debt and defeat. Now the die is cast. Despite Kiss having no international clause in his Reds contract, RA has bypassed two highly-credentialed former Wallabies assistants in Waratahs coach Dan McKellar and Brumbies boss Stephen Larkham to elevate a league winger to the top job in Australian rugby union. Kiss the Kangaroo is now the Wallabies coach.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Moses inspires Eels to win over ill-disciplined Tigers
Mitchell Moses has sparked Parramatta's season into life in a spiteful 38-22 NRL win that has given Wests Tigers an uncomfortable glimpse of a future without Lachlan Galvin. Moses' return from a foot injury has barely rated a mention over the past week as Galvin's contractual status at the Tigers has dominated headlines. Galvin was dropped to NSW Cup by the Tigers after raising concerns with the coaching of Benji Marshall and stating he would not sign a new deal. Without the teenage five-eighth at CommBank Stadium on Monday, the Tigers lacked spark and were incredibly ill-disciplined. Moses, by contrast, kept his cool - even when the Eels were down to 11 men at one point - and set up Bailey Simonsson with a chip kick to clinch the win. "He (Moses) just has a presence in our footy team and when he plays, we're a little bit more organised for longer," said Eels coach Jason Ryles, who was shadowed by ex-Wallabies coach Eddie Jones in his box. "His kicking game certainly helps us, he's a quality player and I'm glad we've got him." How Marshall could have done with a calming influence like Moses. Tuilagi pumps the legs! 💪#NRLTigersEels — NRL (@NRL) April 21, 2025 After their club was subjected to intense media scrutiny all week, the Tigers faltered under the spotlight. Winger Sunia Turuva was sin-binned for igniting a second-half brawl. Veteran utility Jack Bird petulantly threw an opponent's head gear away, missed the ensuing tackle that led to a try, then gave away a penalty on the restart. He did not return and Marshall said such behaviour was "not good enough". Earlier on Sunday, Galvin had played in a Western Suburbs side at Lidcombe Oval, and it remains to be seen how much longer he languishes in reserve grade. Marshall was loathe to discuss Galvin's status amid claim's the five-eighth's camp feel he is being bullied out of the club. "It's been a big week, no doubt, so to get out there and try and play is the first part," Marshall said. "But I don't think that was an excuse for some of the things that happened today." There is every chance that when Galvin does leave the Tigers, he joins Moses at the Eels (2-5) after Ryles spoke of his desire to lure the teen prodigy to Parramatta earlier this week. Moses got Parramatta off to a hot start, kicking a 40/20 and setting up Josh Addo-Carr for the opening try of the afternoon. Tries from Terrell May and Jahream Bula got the Tigers ahead, before Eels fullback Isaiah Iongi scored to make it 10-10 at the break. But things quickly began to unravel for the Tigers, who leaked three tries in six minutes when Samuela Fainu was penalised for a questionable hip-drop tackle on Kelma Tuilagi. Back-rower Tuilagi, Sam Tuivaiti and Iongi crossed in quick succession as Bird was hooked for a run of brain explosions. Turuva was the next Tiger to lose his cool and he and Eels forward Luca Moretti were sent to the sin bin for their roles in an all-in melee. Iongi was sin-binned for a tackle without the ball, reducing the Eels to 11 as they fought to preserve a 16-point lead. The Tigers cut the deficit with tries to Alex Seyfarth and Luke Laulilii. But Moses chipped over the top for Simonsson, before Addo-Carr grabbed his second to truly put the game beyond the Tigers' reach.
