Please not another Kiwi coach, plead ex-players
Dave Rennie’s looming appointment as Australia’s next coach has former Wallabies up in arms and former test fullback Greg Martin said he doesn’t ‘‘want another Kiwi coaching the national team’’.
Michael Cheika quit as Wallabies coach last
Sunday after their humbling quarterfinal defeat to England in the Rugby World Cup.
Cheika’s tumultuous five-year reign, which peaked with a World Cup final appearance in 2015 before last year’s worst Wallabies season in 60 years, came to an end with a public falling out with Rugby Australia (RA) chief executive Raelene Castle.
Former Chiefs coach Rennie is poised to take over, with the Sydney Morning Herald reporting that RA staff have told people the New Zealander has the job, but former Wallabies Morgan Turinui and Martin are unhappy with the Wallabies moving for a new coach so soon after the World Cup.
Martin, who played nine tests for the Wallabies from 1989-90, said hearing news of Rennie’s impending appointment was ‘‘terrible’’.
‘‘I don’t want another Kiwi coaching the national team,’’ he told Fox Sports. ‘‘I’m hearing a terrible rumour Dave Rennie has already been virtually signed.
‘‘I want an Australian to coach the Australian team, someone to bring on the Junior Wallabies who beat the Kiwis and obliterate this Cheika era of being out-coached and out-strategised.’’
Robbie Deans was Australia’s first and last Kiwi coach from 2008-13.
Ewen McKenzie took over but was succeeded in 2014 by Cheika, whose winning record as coach was 50 per cent from 52 matches. Turinui, who played 20 tests for Australia from 2003-05, believes the Wallabies should cast their net further when considering the next coach with several quality candidates becoming available once the World Cup in Japan ends.
‘‘It has been widely reported that Dave Rennie is over the line,’’ Turinui said on The Rugby Ruckus website and podcast. ‘‘If that is true I believe it to be a mistake. I would place Eddie Jones, Jamie Joseph and Vern Cotter all above Dave Rennie as excellent as he is because they have had success at international level.
‘‘To appoint a new coach before seeing where the Rugby World Cup coaching cards fall and before even the review to be conducted by Scott Johnson has been completed seems like going from a quickie divorce with Michael Cheika to a shotgun wedding.’’
Castle, who was set to meet Rennie’s agent in Tokyo this week, insisted on Monday no appointment had been made, but it appears it is an open secret within the organisation that he will be announced in coming weeks.
Rennie is contracted with Glasgow Warriors through to the middle of 2020, so it’s not clear how his potential appointment with the Wallabies would affect his commitments with the Scottish club.
He led the Chiefs to two Super Rugby titles in 2012 and 2013 before leaving for Scotland in 2017.