It’s three years since Rugby Australia sacked Dave Rennie. Have the Wallabies improved?

October 18, 2026 — 4:33pm

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What happened to the Wallabies? Well, a lot has happened to the Wallabies over the past four years.

The Eddie Jones appointment and the World Cup disaster, the Joe Schmidt repair job and the somewhat awkward handover to Les Kiss – three coaches in four years in a turbulent period whose origins can be easily traced back to the decision to sack Dave Rennie.

Based on evidence of the past two weeks, it would be difficult to argue the Wallabies are better now than they were in 2022, especially relative to the All Blacks (whom they beat in 2022).

The other side of this coin is that Rennie has clearly improved the All Blacks, as most of the Wallabies he coached knew he would.

In the old debate about whether the Wallabies were poor or the All Blacks were good, the former was true at Eden Park, and the latter argument held more sway in Sydney.

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© The Sydney Morning Herald