Rugby sevens coach Tim Walsh keen to lead Australia at next Olympics
OUTGOING Australian womens sevens coach Tim Walsh admits he is interested in the head coach role of the Aussie mens team, but he is also prepared to coach a rival nation.
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OUTGOING Australian womens sevens coach Tim Walsh admits he is interested in the head coach role of the Aussie mens team but, having already fielded calls from overseas, he is prepared to coach a rival nation at the next Olympics.
Walsh — who steered the womens team to a gold medal in Rio — shocked his players two weeks ago by announcing he would end his five-year tenure and step down as coach after the Commonwealth Games in April.
With the world series only half-finished and the sevens World Cup to be played in San Francisco in July, the timing seemed odd. But Walsh said it was calculated to give his successor — and himself — the best chance of more success at the Tokyo Games in 2020.
“I looked at all the teams that won medals in Rio and they had all their coaches for a minimum of three years, and four out of six of them had won a world series as a coach or a player,” Walsh said.
“So, in order to give the new coach enough time to put their flavour and leadership into it, that was an important aspect. It’ll be at least two and a half years for them.
“And for me personally, I would like to stay in sevens, I love the game and where it is going, and if I did take over another team I would want that time as well. So to announce it now, it gives time for the players and also me to find something else.”
“But am I prepared to move overseas? Yes,” Walsh said.
“My wife and I have British passports and I think part of my successes in coaching have been due to having so many different influences from around the world. I had seasons in New Zealand, the USA, England, Italy. I have travelled a lot with sevens.
“I understand there are only two head coach roles in Australia so the likelihood is if I want to do that I will have to go overseas. But I don’t think anything is going to happen with all the teams around until at least post-Commonwealth Games.”
Walsh said he’d already been contacted about roles in “both sevens and fifteens from abroad, which is nice”.
Walsh’s mid-season departure has put sudden pressure on Rugby Australia to determine how much they want to keep him.
The contract of current mens head coach Andy Friend expires this year and RA have not yet offered a renewal. The former Brumbies coach has built a very promising young squad but after a disappointing Olympics and no world series tournament wins for many years, job security will only come with success at this week’s Sydney Sevens and at the Commonwealth Games.
Asked if he was interested in coaching the Australian mens sevens team, should the position be available, Walsh said: “I am an Aussie and I grew up watching the Wallabies and idolising everything about them, so yeah, I would love to do that job.”
The minds of Walsh and Friend will be firmly focussed this week on conjuring strong performances for their respective teams at the Sydney Sevens, which begins on Friday at Allianz Stadium.
It is the third year of the event in Sydney but it has evolved for a third time, having moved forward to the Australia Day weekend and with the three-day tournament now fully integrated, both mens and womens games will be played on all three days.
Originally published as Rugby sevens coach Tim Walsh keen to lead Australia at next Olympics