Coaches scout Rebels job

THE Melbourne Rebels have fielded inquiries from within Australia and abroad to replace coach Tony McGahan, who will leave at the end of the Super Rugby season.

McGahan and the club will part ways after one win from 15 rounds, the Rebels’ worst performance since joining the competition in 2011.

With a big injury toll contributing to the disappointing results, the coach has also had to carry the stress of Melbourne being a candidate to be cut from the competition by the Australian Rugby Union.

The decision is still to be made but the Rebels are confident their future is safe and have been linked to Western Force coach Dave Wessels, whose club is the other on the ARU chopping block.

Highly rated Melbourne assistant, former Wallaby Morgan Turinui could also be an option, although the club would likely look for someone more experience.

Melbourne chief executive Baden Stephenson said a number of coaches had made contact but the club had not started a recruitment process.

“We’ll go through a process to get the best coach available,” Stephenson said. “If David happens to be available and that’s the way the cards fall . . . I think he’s done a good job under difficult circumstances and is a fairly highly regarded developing coach and would certainly be worth some strong consideration but we haven’t officially targeted him because we don’t know what the scenario will be.”

He said the timing would depend on the ARU’s decision, which they hoped would come before the end of next month.

Stephenson paid tribute to McGahan’s efforts, noting he had produced their best results in 2015 and 2106 and a number of Wallabies, including Reece Hodge, Sean McMahon and Toby Smith.

“Tony’s a great rugby man, highly respected and will leave a significant hole in our program,” he said.

McGahan declined to talk but centre Tom English said the players felt for the coach.

“Unfortunately we’ve had a bad season and changes are going to happen on the back of that,” English said.

“It’s important to realise that while Tony is being accountable for that, there is also other things at play whether it be our injury profile or the uncertainty.”

McGahan has games remaining against the Western Force on July 7 and Argentina’s Jaguares in the last round.