It may have gone unnoticed earlier this week, but the Queensland Rugby Union’s strategic plan laid out a bold statement for rugby’s future in Australia’s Sunshine State.
After turning things around in recent years both on and off the field, the organisation has every right to be bullish about its future – the goal of winning men’s and women’s Super Rugby titles before 2030 and having 100,000 registered players are lofty, but attainable endeavours. And the signing of Kiwi Vern Cotter as the Reds’ Super Rugby Pacific coach from 2027 is a testament to their pursuit of rugby excellence.
But the team’s on-field performance has seldom been as scrutinised as it will be this year. As much as it might pain fans of the Waratahs, Brumbies and Western Force, the Reds are likely to be every Australian supporter’s “second team” in 2026.
And that is purely for the fact that Queensland coach Les Kiss will in six months’ time take charge of the Wallabies. Kiss will be the first Queensland coach to graduate to the top job since Ewen McKenzie made the transition in 2013, but that wasn’t until after Robbie Deans had been sacked following the 2-1 series loss to the British and Irish Lions.
Unlike McKenzie, Kiss will therefore carry the added spotlight of expectation every week his team runs out of the sheds – starting with Friday night’s trip to Sydney to face the Waratahs.
And like it or not, the fact that the Reds dropped both of their preseason games has already heightened that broader Wallabies lens.
But that is part of the job, and Kiss absolutely knows what he has signed up for.
And given their steady improvement over the past two seasons, the expectation is that this is the season when the Reds go deeper into Super Rugby than week one of the finals. There is simply no excuse for them not to.
The 2026 Reds have greater depth at No. 10, despite Carter Gordon and Tom Lynagh being scratched for Round 1, and an impressive array of emerging youngsters that reinforce the improvements the QRU has made to its talent pipeline.
In Kiss’ first year in charge, the Reds finished fifth with eight wins. It was the same result last year, but with two fewer competition points in total. If anything, the Reds flatlined in 2025.
That cannot be the case this year, a regression from that would be a disaster for Australian rugby, with an unshakeable question as to whether Rugby Australia had made the right call about the future of the Wallabies, particularly when Stephen Larkham, whose Brumbies had twice finished above the Reds in Kiss’ two Super seasons, had also applied for the top job.
But RA decided to throw all its eggs into the continuity basket, determining that Kiss’ relationship with current Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt, and a similar coaching mantra, would be the avenue of least disruption just 15 months out from a home Rugby World Cup.
And so that spotlight extends to RA boss Phil Waugh and the rest of the board, too.
But the expectation is that the Reds will perform, hence the bullish comments from QRU chief executive David Hanham on Monday.
“Our vision is to be the best rugby province in the world,” Hanham said.
“We know this vision isn’t achieved overnight but over the past seven years we have built an incredibly strong platform to launch from.
“With more than 84,000 participants, a thriving club and school pathway, a world-class high-performance facility and the quality of players and coaches across Queensland, we are committed to striving for excellence and continual improvement in everything we do.”
Hanham’s comments represent a refreshing attitude from an organisation that resisted RA’s centralisation push, and one that has backed itself to be successful stewards of the game’s destiny in Queensland.
Kiss’ promotion to the Wallabies job and the Reds’ back-to-back fifth placed finishes in Super Rugby Pacific are proof that things have trended in the right direction.
But those two markers on Queensland’s journey to 2030 arrive at a fork in the road this year, starting on Friday night in Sydney, and the ramifications of an untimely regression will be felt far beyond the state’s borders.
And have the Kiss’ Wallabies era under fire before it has even begun.
