The background stench of the maneuverings that saw Eddie Jones installed as Wallabies coach and the departure of Dave Rennie will linger long after Jones’ reign has ended.
Rugby Australia’s axing of Rennie and introduction of Jones could feasibly make the Wallabies a renewed and formidable force at thisyear’s Rugby World Cup. Jones has built a reputation as a fast-moving energiser, an agent of change whose immediate sugar rush can give a team short-term boost. He is also – like many Australian coaches across different sporting codes – devilishly clever.
But the manner in which the new coach was brought in was distasteful and reveals an organisation that outsiders might in future be wary of joining.
Rugby Australia bosses were meeting with Jones last year, while he was still the coach of England. Both sides have been clear that, in those meetings, the Wallabies job was not discussed – presumably there was a lot of weather to talk about. Heads would be scratched here in New Zealand if it were to emerge that NZ Rugby CEO Mark Robinson was having private meetings with coaches of other nations.
Rennie is a fine coach who was doing good work with an average crop of players – we’ll see him again on the international stage. The secretive planning that ended with him being sent packing – followed by a braying statement from Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan declaring Jones to be “the best coach in the world” – reveals a snakepit.
