Bledisloe Cup 2020 series: Wallabies coach Dave Rennie’s impossible All Blacks task
With Rugby Australia finalising a deal to play the All Blacks four times this year to deliver the code much-needed money, the news isn’t as good for new Wallabies coach Dave Rennie.
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Dave Rennie’s first task as Wallabies coach will be to create history and defeat the All Blacks three times in one year to wrest back the Bledisloe Cup.
The unenviable hospital pass has been thrown to the incoming Australian coach as Rugby Australia boss Rob Clarke confirmed the Wallabies’ high performance department will not be affected by the 77 job losses across the organisation.
Clarke confirmed The Daily Telegraph’s May 15 report revealing that four Bledisloe Cup matches would be played this year to put much-needed funds into the accounts of both RA and New Zealand Rugby.
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“It’s a great product, gains a lot of attention and we feel at least a four-game series is something we can work into the calendar this year to work for them and us,” Clarke said.
That means the world No.7 ranked Wallabies need to win three of those Tests to regain the Bledisloe trophy for the first time since 2002. Only twice in 114 years have the Wallabies managed the treble against the All Blacks; in 1998 and 1929.
For Rennie, who has never worked at Test level before, the task looms as the most difficult first-up assignment ever handed to a debutant international coach.
Perhaps that is why RA will not ask Rennie to take a 5 per cent pay cut the rest of the senior staff are being requested to, which together with 47 full-time staff and 30 casual redundancies announced on Monday will save an annual $5.5 million.
“Dave hasn’t started yet, so he will be excluded from that,” Clarke said.
“All other staff over a certain threshold will be invited to take a 5 per cent pay cut. It’s a legal requirement and so we’ll be following the law there.
“I’m confident that the staff coming back will want to help to continue to play their part in the financial sustainability of the game.”
Rennie is self-isolating in New Zealand after returning to his country of birth following a coaching stint for Scottish club Glasgow. He faces another quarantine when he arrives in Australia in early July before planning his Cup campaign, set to be played in October and November if COVID-19 border restrictions allow travel between Australia and New Zealand.
Since the first three-Test series was played between the nations in 1907, only the 1929 side – the first Wallabies team assembled since the First World War – and Rod Macqueen’s all-conquering 1998 team have swept the Kiwis.
And since Eddie Jones’ 2003 Wallabies lost the Bledisloe Cup, Australia has failed to win the trans-Tasman trophy, with Jones and ensuing coaches John Connolly, Robbie Deans, Ewen McKenzie and Michael Cheika falling short.
Cuts at RA have been across the board, from contracting and finance to marketing to communications, however the Wallabies’ program - on which RA spent $9.7 million last year - will remain untouched given the importance of the national team’s performance to the game’s bottom line.
“A key part of our financial underpinning is a successful Wallabies, it’s not everything but it’s certainly a key part of it,” Clarke said.
“We’ll be protecting that as much as possible.
“We need to try and protect as much of our high performance area as possible that is going to help get the Wallabies where they need to get to as a world ranking.
“We’re looking at the high performance area as a stand-alone operation at the moment and with [director of rugby] Scott Johnson and other management staff, we’re looking at how we can deliver high performance across the country more efficiently as well and that will be in combination with our member unions.
“It comes down to prioritising the most important functions of our business. I think the staff base we have going forward will still enable us to focus on the priority areas of delivering what we do as a national body and supporting our member unions where we need to support them but there will be trade-offs.
“We will have to look at programs and certain initiatives that we might want to have implemented that maybe we can’t for now.”
Clarke said the same applies to the women’s and Sevens programs.
Teams to beat the All Blacks three times in one year
2009: South Africa
1998: Australia
1976: South Africa
1970: South Africa
1949: South Africa
1929: Australia