Rugby Australia launches global search for next Wallabies coach with short deadline for candidates to step forward
With no time to waste after Eddie Jones reneged on his promise to stick with the Wallabies by exiting less than a year into his five season deal, the search for a new national coach has begun.
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Anyone brave or foolish enough to take on the hardest job in Australian sport has been told to get a wriggle on and throw their hat in the ring within the next fortnight.
With no time left to waste after Eddie Jones quit the Wallabies early and scuttled back to Japan after overseeing the World Cup debacle, Rugby Australia has launched its global search for the next national head coach.
Prospective candidates have been notified they have just over two weeks to declare their interest. The deadline is January 12.
Advertisements for the role have been posted on RA’s careers page and LinkedIn, while a top sports recruiting firm has been hired to help come up with a list of suitable applicants.
While long-suffering Wallabies fans may well smirk in disagreement after suffering through two decades of gut-wrenching losses, the position was charitably described on RA’s vacancies page as “one of the most prestigious roles in Australian sport and rugby worldwide”.
That held true when Rod Macqueen guided the Wallabies to their last World Cup title (1999), successive Bledisloe Cup victories (1998-2002) and a historic series win over the British and Irish Lions (2001).
But the job has resembled a poisoned chalice in the years since when the stints of each of Macqueen’s successors have all ended in tears.
But the honeymoon won’t last long because the pressure to start winning again will intensify quickly before Australia hosts the Lions in 2025 and the men’s World Cup in 2027.
“Rugby in Australia is embarking upon its most exciting era ever,” the advertisement said.
“The role is critical in Rugby AU’s pursuit to achieve its strong ambition of the Wallabies being a consistently winning and impactful international rugby program.”
The short-listed candidates will be interviewed by an RA-appointed panel that will include newly appointed director of high performance Peter Horne and chief executive Phil Waugh. No firm date has been set for an appointment but Waugh has said he hoped to have a decision in the first quarter of next year.
While everything for now remains shrouded in secrecy, the leading candidates could include Michael Cheika, Joe Schmidt, Stephen Larkham and Dan McKellar.
That leaves the deciding panel with a tricky decision to make because all have their pros and cons.
Cheika still has plenty of supporters despite his messy departure from his first crack at the job.
He left after the World Cup quarter-final loss in 2019 but before that had steered the Wallabies to the 1995 final and since then Argentina to the semi-finals this year.
Cheika has plenty of experience but history shows that doesn’t count for much at World Cups.
Seven of the 10 editions have been won by head coaches making their first appearance at the tournament.
While Schmidt is widely regarded, his record at World Cups is poor, and it’s a well-known statistic that no foreign coach has won the Webb Ellis Cup.
The 58-year-old New Zealander coached Ireland at the 2015 and 2019 tournaments but failed to make it past the quarter-finals each time.
In 2019, Ireland went into the global showpiece ranked No.1 in the world but suffered an embarrassing loss to Japan in the pool phase then a 46-14 thrashing to the All Blacks in the quarter-finals.
A review by Ireland Rugby into the World Cup flop was highly critical of Schmidt, who was also an assistant to the New Zealand side that just lost the 2023 final to the Springboks.
A World Cup winner as a player, Larkham would be a hugely popular choice if he’s given the job but his relative lack of experience as a coach may count against him.
Larkham hasn’t coached a national side but was an assistant to Cheika in 2015 and at a time when the code desperately needs a boost, his stocks have risen.
Currently coaching in England after deputising for Dave Rennie, who was sacked at the start of 2023, McKellar has indicated he won’t apply but is likely to at least be asked whether he’s had a change of heart because of his success with the Brumbies.
Originally published as Rugby Australia launches global search for next Wallabies coach with short deadline for candidates to step forward