Joe Schmidt has three Tests left in charge of the Wallabies, and the players in the room are not pretending it's a normal preparation. Halfback Jake Gordon and outside back Harry Potter fronted the press to talk about Australia's three home Tests in the new Nations Championship format — and the storyline driving everything around them was Schmidt's farewell.
"It's going to be a nice three-game send-off, and then yeah, transition into what Les can bring, which I'm sure is going to be hopefully a seamless and what looks like a well-thought-out process," Gordon said.
The Wallabies face the same three Northern hemisphere sides who beat them at the back end of the 2025 spring tour. For Gordon, the symmetry is more than coincidence — it is motivation.
"It's probably really important we send Joe off," he said. "Joe's contribution especially over the last two years for a lot of the guys in the team and myself has been awesome. We would love to get those games back, and put in some really good performances on home soil in front of our home crowd as well."
The Schmidt era has produced some of the most cohesive Wallabies rugby of the post-pandemic period, and Gordon was unambiguous about the personal stake.
"Incredibly grateful," he said. "I got an opportunity under Joe to play for the Wallabies. I think what he's done with the team has been absolutely brilliant."
The new Nations Championship — which sees the Six Nations and SANZAAR-aligned sides aligned in a single competition — gets its proper rollout in 2026, with a final round to be staged at Twickenham. Gordon was visibly enthused.
"There's a few things," he said of the concept. "The concept at the end, to see all the nations play across the weekend at Twickenham — it's such a great stadium, and the amount of support and the amount of fans they get over there in the northern hemisphere — to be able to see not only the best players but the best teams compete over that weekend will be exceptional."
The halfback also pointed to a wider truth he sees across the international landscape — that rugby, more than at any time in his career, is genuinely wide open at the top.
"Apart from the French, who have been the outlier — pretty clinical in all their games — any team on their day can win," Gordon said. "You're seeing that across all international fixtures at the moment. It's a pretty tight contest until the 60-minute, and you're seeing benches have a massive influence on games."
The context cannot be ignored. Australia hosts the Rugby World Cup in 2027 and the Wallabies' 18-month build is now formally underway. Gordon was direct about what the home Tests in July need to do.
"It's huge games, you always want to perform well," he said. "You're going to start wanting to put the pieces together in July this year, I'd say."
Reflecting on the 2025 British and Irish Lions series — a campaign that captivated Australian rugby — Gordon spoke with the slight reverence of a player who knows he has already lived through the highlight of his career.
"I thought the Lion Series was the best series I've ever been involved in," he said. "There's not many moments when you're playing rugby where — I don't want to say pinch yourself — but you're sort of looking around going wow. I thought that MCG game, the walk out there was something I haven't experienced yet in Test match rugby."
The inside-out story of the 2026 Wallabies preparation is the closing of the Schmidt chapter and the opening of the Kiss one. Both Gordon and Potter underlined that the home crowd will be the variable that turns the three Tests from a routine July series into a moment.
"We love playing the Northern teams on home soil," Gordon said. "There's no better way to start off the season at home with hopefully what will be a few good wins."
For Schmidt, the farewell has been quietly choreographed by the players themselves. For the supporters, it is the last chance to see a meticulous, often understated coach put his fingerprints on the Wallabies before a new voice takes over with a Rugby World Cup just over a year away.
