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'The ideal scenario is that the next coach is Australian': Dave Rennie drops hint at Wallabies coaching future

By Online Editors
(Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

Wallabies head coach Dave Rennie has hinted that he may not stick around with the Australian national side beyond the 2023 World Cup.

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The 56-year-old New Zealander, who is yet to take charge of his first game for the Wallabies due to the COVID-19 outbreak, instead believes an Australian should succeed him in once his tenure comes to an end.

Rennie took charge of the Wallabies this month after concluding his time with Scottish PRO14 side Glasgow Warriors, replacing former boss Michael Cheika, who led Australia to a quarter-final exit at last year’s World Cup in Japan.

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Dan McKellar and Allan Alaalatoa speak to media

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Dan McKellar and Allan Alaalatoa speak to media

Becoming just the second Kiwi to take the job after Robbie Deans was signed by Rugby Australia in 2008, Rennie’s appointment comes with the task of re-building the Wallabies after falling to a lowly seventh place on the World Rugby rankings.

The added weight of expectation to end a 17-year Bledisloe Cup drought against the All Blacks and help revive rugby union’s declining status within Australia also loom as prominent aspects on Rennie’s agenda.

While many see the two-time Super Rugby-winning coach as the right man to meet those expectations, the former Chiefs boss suggested he may only have until France 2023 to fulfil those expectations as he remains “uncertain” about extending his current four-year deal.

“I’m not certain,” he told The Australian on Monday when asked if he planned to be around for the 2027 World Cup.

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“The ideal scenario is that the next coach is Australian and there needs to be some thought around that. If there is someone ready to go after the [2023] World Cup, that may be in the best interests of Australian rugby.

“You can’t think too far ahead in this game.

“I’m fully committed to the [2023] World Cup but what happens beyond that … there has to be an emphasis around identifying and developing other coaches to coach Australia.”

The Wallabies’ first assignment under the tutelage of Rennie remains unclear as the COVID-19 pandemic has effectively eliminated the international calendar this year.

Hopes remain high, however, for a four-match Bledisloe Cup series against the All Blacks between October and November, while talks are underway for a revised Rugby Championship to take place exclusively in New Zealand at the end of the year.

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Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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