Aussie Pro Rugby
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@nostrildamus said in Aussie Rugby:
@voodoo said in Aussie Rugby:
From the Oz - Foz in the running...
Eddie Jones fallout: All Blacks mentor in mix to coach Wallabies
EXCLUSIVE
By JESSICA HALLORAN
CHIEF SPORTS WRITER
@JessiHalloranUPDATED 12:27PM OCTOBER 30, 2023, FIRST PUBLISHED AT 11:22AM OCTOBER 30, 2023
Outgoing All Blacks coach Ian Foster is being considered as the next Wallabies coach, with former Australian coach Michael Cheika and Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham also being floated as replacements for Eddie Jones.
The Australian understands Foster, who took the All Blacks to the World Cup final but endured a heartbreaking one-point loss to South Africa, is in Rugby Australia’s sights.
The Wallabies failed to qualify for the quarter-finals for the first time in the World Cup’s 36-year history.
The off-contract Kiwi coach gave an interview to the official All Blacks website on Monday stating he had no clear plans yet for his future.
Foster told the website that while he was offered coaching positions during the World Cup, he said he wasn‘t interested in discussing them until after.
“The team deserved to have a head coach they knew was 100 per cent committed to this team right now. That‘s what I did,” Foster told allblacks.com. ”There’s no secret plans.”
Foster, who at times endured criticism during his tenure as head coach of New Zealand, led what has been described as the “least fancied’’ All Blacks World Cup history to the tournament’s final.
The All Blacks announced back in April that highly-successful Crusaders Super Rugby coach Scott Robertson would assume the role after the World Cup.
Foster had strong support from the All Blacks playing group.
“I have the utmost respect and praise for Fozzie,” All Blacks centre Rieko Ioane said after the final in Paris on Saturday. ”He has also faced adversity not only this tournament but leading into this tournament and to lead us and produce some of the footy we were able to produce is a credit to him.”
Cheika meanwhile sensationally took Argentina to the semi-finals of the World Cup for the first time and has never hidden his desire to coach the Wallabies again.
The former Wallabies coach has however been linked to a role at the NRL’s Wests Tigers.
Cheika’s contract with Argentina is due to expire with the Pumas now that their World Cup campaign is over and following their fourth place finish.
“I’ll go to Argentina later in the year and we’ll have a talk about how things went and what the future holds,” Cheika said after the Pumas final match.
Former Wallabies assistant coach Dan McKellar, who has an exit cause from his contract with Leicester, is also being touted as a candidate for the Wallabies job.
Larkham, who was the attacking coach under Cheika at the 2015 World Cup, also departed in 2019 and is being discussed as a possible replacement for Jones.
The former Wallabies star five-eighth also spent three years coaching Irish provincial side Munster. He returned to the Brumbies for the 2023 Super Rugby season.
JESSICA HALLORAN CHIEF SPORTS WRITER
Why can't you have them all? Larkham, Cheika and Foster? The coaches' box during games would be a spectacle in itself!
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@Bovidae said in Aussie Rugby:
Why would any non-Australian coach be interested if McLennan still wants some control? And before someone says the money, RA doesn't have any.
One would only have to look at recent history for how the rugby community in Australia treats Kiwis to stay clear anyway.
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@barbarian said in Aussie Rugby:
They have some money. Enough to pay pretty nicely.
And ultimately it's still a prestige job. You'd be coming in at rock bottom with a Lions tour and home World Cup on the horizon. It's not the worst sales pitch.
Exactly - if expectations are "better than 2023" then you can't lose!
Once you've had an international coaching gig, getting another one is easier. Like being a CEO: you can be the biggest fuckup in the room, but you've still got that on your resume so C-suite jobs are much easier.
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Someone will want it. Guys at that level have massive egos, so someone will absolutely believe they are the guy to win with the Wallabies.
Tough gig to come in to though. It's a rebuild from the base job. Eddie's fucked all your old heads off so the support network is lacking. And you are going to have to develop guys in key positions with the following monstrous handicaps
The Super Rugby sides don't give a fuck about you, and won't help you or listen to your needs
A heap of your so-called best players are overseas, and will only turn up for short windows. -
Not an easy job for sure. But clear communication with the media and public would be a good place to start. Both McClennan and Eddie went in all guns blazing, abrasive, antagonistic and arrogant, and anyone like that is going to get slaughtered for their mistakes.
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@Machpants said in Aussie Rugby:
It's pretty damning that Eddie was also brought in to run the women's program as well, and he's never met the team or visited their training etc.
They dodged a bullet.
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@Machpants that really fucked me off actually
even last week they were preparing for a game and he had nothing to do but do press conferences where he was claiming he was committed
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Rugby Australia Board To Be Dissolved And Replaced By Hunter Valley Club Footy Stalwart, Trish — The Betoota Advocate
CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT Rugby coach Eddie Jones’ controversial return to the Wallabies is officially over – as Rugby Australia confirms his resignation. It is believed Jones is still very employable at an international level, even after leading the Wallabies to Australia’s first Rugby...
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this was pretty good
The self-pity party of Hamish McLennan
The Rugby Australia chairman blamed ‘the system’ after the exit of Wallabies coach Eddie Jones, parking any personal responsibility for the mess the game finds itself in.
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@KiwiMurph Five minutes in and a few things strike me:
- For a prepared statement, he ummed and ahhed considerably which I never confuse with a prepared, clear intellect.
- The constant use of disappointing instead of unacceptable.
- The deflection from personal responsibility to "the board".
- An utter lack of accountability.
One gets the feeling intellects don't work at RA because there's no room leftover once ego fills the rooms.
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@antipodean said in Aussie Rugby:
@Bovidae said in Aussie Rugby:
Why would any non-Australian coach be interested if McLennan still wants some control? And before someone says the money, RA doesn't have any.
One would only have to look at recent history for how the rugby community in Australia treats Kiwis to stay clear anyway.
Was going to say the samething. There is a group in Oz Rugby's Administration (Philr Kurns being one) who hate Kiwi's and blame them for everything that's wrong with OZ rugby.
