Present Glasgow Warriors head trainer along with incoming Australia head trainer Dave Rennie has spoken exclusively to Sky Sports Rugby about his decision to choose the Wallabies job, just how close he had been to training the All Blacks and the challenges which await…
The Wallabies are coming from the back of their Rugby World Cup performance for 12 years. Underneath Michael Cheika, the sides form seemed to decline year on year.
Stalwarts of the country such as David Pocock and Will Genia have retired. Problems have dominated Australian information almost as much as the French.
However, New Zealander Rennie has made a decision to create his jump. Why Australia and now?
Weve been trying to decide our future over the past 12 weeks or so, Rennie only told Skys Rupert Cox about the Will Greenwood Podcast.
We chose to keep here [at Glasgow] to get a third season, that has been very great, and looking beyond this, there really are a few global alternatives.
We did our homework and it [the Wallabies job] is thrilling. There matters under Michael Cheika that were done nicely, and we can build on this. Theres a genuine appetite for change and there is a whole great deal of people who are ready to roll up their sleeves and find a little bit of work done, so it appealed.
It is an worldwide role which I have been interested in for some time, and coming here [to Europe] was good for me personally – its a somewhat different game and I have learnt plenty.
Before taking control of their Glasgow Warriors at 2017 having trained Wellington, New Zealand U20s along with the Chiefs, Rennie had also been in the conversation.
His name had been bandied around and he affirmed talks did take place. How far over the line did he ever return to registering up with his native union?
Not very far at all in fact, that the 56-year-old said.
Obviously they made contact, as they did with a great deal of folks, and I fielded a few telephone calls to boost my interest.
However, in the end, Id been speaking to Australia for a number of weeks, and they have been pretty positive about those meetings.
Id spoken to board members, to Raelene (Castle, Rugby Australia CEO) and to Scott Johnson (RA Director of Rugby). We had discussed itlooked in detail at it, so it was a choice that was simple when they left the offer.
We were just quite a way down the trail prior to the All Blacks demonstrating any attention. It was a very simple decision.
There are additional issues associated with being head coach of Australia too, Along with on-field performances not being where they need to be.
The Wallabies experience a participant drain like nowhere else on earth game, bar South Africa, although the game is also far from high in terms of playing and popularity amounts within the country.
Ive talked in detail about these things to Scott Johnson and, to be honest, the fact he is there assisted in my decision making.
They are making a true effort to deal with young foreign players and there is a whole good deal of them coming through on ferry prices.
There is not any doubt that within the last few decades, theres been a great deal of Australian players going into Japan and heading into this portion of earth, and I guess you have got make sure theres an avenue and a pathway for all those players and show them a bit of love and interest.
There is also a lot of competition within the nation: rugby is your fourth-ranked male sport there. But, ultimately, Ive been very impressed by Raelene, Jonno is known by me nicely, and there is already some rocks set up to stem blood flow and identify young kids that were great to try and get them to follow our code.
The threat of selecting players from overseas is the amount of money on offer in Japan and Europe is enormous, and you have got minimum control on what happens from there.
If there is a prop who is playing at France, they do not care if he could grab a pass or go, it is more about if he can scrummage and that makes it fairly tough to select him and bring him back in for a Test series at which he is likely to be playing against some of the greatest gamers and well-conditioned athletes in the world.
And I feel the perfect scenario is that you have your best players playing the young players that are coming , so theres role-modelling happening and so on.
But its a real challenge and there is a true danger in opening it up and the affect it might have on the game in that country.
Is civilization. And he sees that the Australia job as no different.
For team to succeed and those players, they will need to acquire the public onside.
You have got to get a relationship with people and together with the game and the background, he said. Because were searching for something bigger than ourselves, and the only way you recognise thats should you get a hands-on, genuine relationship with it.
I think that its crucial and, looking additional afield, it is a means of raising the team and getting stronger as a unit. Weve obtained such a multi-cultural group of people there, that you need to have the ability bring everyone closer together and to tap into different cultures.
I am moving in with my eyes open. I was aware that Australians want an Australian training their national rugby team. This is logical.
Obviously that is not the way it is likely to be. Theres been an enormous quantity of support too, although I expected to have a fair bit of flak from both sides of the Tasman.
If were not winning, you are under scrutiny, and perhaps more so being a foreign coach. But wherever Ive gone Ive embraced the culture and I want to make a difference in Australia.
It is not merely a case of me thinking,well, I have a contract for 3 or four decades and Im not overly concerned about grassroots rugby etc. I want to leave the area at a much better place than I found it.
I am enthusiastic about the sport and creating change. You have got to surround yourself with folks to produce change, and I am looking forward to that challenge.
It is important that we have high expectations and that we get outcomes from the beginning instead of talk about rebuilding, youthful teams along with a World Cup in four years period.
The rugby public wont be too concerned that far ahead. They will want results or surely a team that is spilling a little bit of blood for each other.

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