Veteran Australian coach Laurie Fisher has backed the growth of Australian coaches as he prepares to end his tenure with the Wallabies at the end of their opening three Tests against Ireland, France and Italy in July.
Announcing he would be stepping away from coaching in any official capacity earlier this week, Fisher will be ending a 26-year coaching career that began with the Brumbies and has taken him to England and Ireland provincial rugby, back to the Brumbies and eventually the Wallabies where he will end his career.
Across his two-decade long career he's witnessed the merry-go-round of provincial and national coaches - particularly through the last decade -- that has seen the Wallabies usher in seven coaches in 20 years, including Eddie Jones' catastrophic second tenure in 2023 that culminated in their worst ever World Cup showing.
He's also been witness to the constant questioning of Australia's coaching stocks with Rugby Australia turning to New Zealand three times over 18 years. First appointing Robbie Deans in 2008, before Dave Rennie (2020-2023) and most recently Joe Schmidt (2024-2026). Alongside them has also come international assistant coaches, while the Australian men's sevens side is also coached by former All Black Liam Barry.
The Wallaroos were also previously coached by England's Jo Yapp, who stepped down at the end of last year's women's Rugby World Cup.
Currently Fisher and scrum coach John Ulugia are the only Australians in the five-man coaching team with incumbent Wallabies coach Les Kiss -- who'll take over the squad from August -- retaining Ulugia and Irish coach and current Wallabies skills coach Eoin Toolan, while adding England's Jonny Fisher -- his current Queensland Reds assistant -- and former All Blacks centre Scott McLeod as defence specialist.
But while the Wallabies coaching staff has been bloated with international contractors, just a level below that is a coaching group flush with Australian talent as Rugby Australia make a determined effort to grow coaching pathways.
Most recently Brumbies coach and former Wallabies flyhalf Stephen Larkham has been named Australia A coach alongside Simon Cron as his assistant, while all four Super sides were led by Australians in 2026 - New Zealand's Vern Cotter will take over the Reds in 2027 - and Chris Whitaker currently leads the Junior Wallabies.
ESPN asked Fisher if he was happy with the current crop of Australian coaches and the direction they were moving.
"Yeah, I think we've got good coaches," Fisher said. "If I look at Super Rugby coaches here, I think all four coaches stand up against any other provincial coaches in world rugby. I think we've got good quality.
"Could we improve how we develop our coaches? I don't know, possibly.
"The pathway is always a challenge of coach development, but I think we've got good coaches and I'm desperately hoping that Super Rugby takes another step forward next year because I think they're good men with good ideas and I think we've got to be a little bit more risk taking in Super Rugby."
What would he like to see more of?
"I think we're a little bit risk averse in how we play in Super Rugby.
"Given where the game is at the moment, I think we could be a little bit more risk management rather than risk averse and try and grow our game a little bit more. We'll see what happens."
While he'll be stepping away from coaching in a fulltime capacity, Fisher's experience and knowledge won't be lost to Australian rugby completely, with the assistant coach remaining with RA as a consultant.
"I'm in the process of arranging a consultancy with RA," Fisher said. "Help out, be available to Super sides, available to 20s, to women's, to coach Ed, to Wallabies if needed, so there'll be an allocated number of days that I'd love to stay and try and provide some guidance at different levels through Australian rugby."