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He’ll be holidaying in Japan next month but reckons he isn’t and hasn’t been in the running to be the next Brave Blossoms coach.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Tom Decent says otherwise.
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That’ll all play out. What a sorry saga this has been.
If you have mates who love rugby you’ll recognise this common refrain. “It’s all very sad.”
It really is. On so many levels. Sad for supporters. As Paul Cully writes in the SMH, supporters don’t have the luxury of an exit clause.
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It’s sad for the game. In the wake of the best World Cup in history the rugby world is looking at us and shaking their heads.
Is there anything worse than being pitied?
Sad for the players. For the quality young men who went to the World Cup and were let down by their employer, and for the experienced players who were left behind.
A World Cup is not a development tour.
It was a little over nine months ago Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan was trumpeting the birth of a new era.
He’d made his captain’s pick. Dave Rennie was sacked (via Zoom) and Eddie Jones was installed as Wallabies coach.
“He’s the best coach in the world,” the chairman said, “with a deep understanding of our rugby system.”
I’ll admit it. I drank the Kool-Aid. While powerful voices in England sounded their warnings – careful what you wish for – Eddie was saying all the right things.
“It’s a smash and grab raid mate, we’re going to win the World Cup mate.”
There was hope. And here we are. It’s October.
Eddie has resigned nine months into a five year contract and Australian rugby looks like London after the blitz.
The focus will shift now to the chairman Hamish McLennan.
Is he the right man for the rebuild? Or is he so inextricably linked to Eddie’s whirlwind coaching stint that he too must go?
Eddie says he pulled the pin because he could see no prospect of RA delivering the structural change needed for him to be able to do his job.
But surely a coach “with a deep understanding of our rugby system” would have realised the challenges before he signed on.
Didn’t he look under the bonnet?
Ironically it’s McLennan who’s been the major driver for structural change and he will argue only he can deliver it.
So now the clean-up starts. Lifting debris off the battered and bruised. Who’s in charge? Who’s job will it be to rebuild the Wallabies for Tests against the much improved Wales and Fiji next July?
Former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika is one name being mentioned. He exited after the 2019 World Cup.
Cheik would be open to a return if the timing was right.
Dan McKellar is a former Wallabies assistant and former Brumbies coach now in charge of Leicester in England. He would bring calm and stability. Normality.
An injection of that would be good right about now.
And then there’s a Wallabies great, a World Cup winner, who’s waited patiently for his opportunity.
Stephen Larkham is the Brumbies coach who was an assistant under Cheika before heading to Munster in Ireland.
Again, there’s a sense of calm and normality.
There could also be overseas options so here’s an idea. Call me crazy. Why not run a process. Call for applications. Shake the tree.
Rugby Australia owes it to all of us to find the very best person available.
