Future Wallabies coach battle could come down to Super Rugby AU rivals Brad Thorn and Dan McKellar

As news of his impressive deeds with the Reds spreads, interest levels in Brad Thorn are starting to grow. Rugby Australia are determined to hold on to him but may need to consider something new as a dealbreaker.

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 19: Reds coach Brad Thorn looks on before the Super Rugby AU Grand Final between the Brumbies and the Reds at GIO Stadium on September 19, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

As Queensland Reds coach Brad Thorn weighs up his coaching future, Rugby Australia’s director of rugby Scott Johnson has given him something new to consider – the possibility he could be the next Wallabies coach.

Unquestionably Brumbies coach Dan McKellar looks to have the inside running on the national job, but with Dave Rennie planning to remain in the position at least until the 2023 World Cup in France, there is time aplenty for a fluid situation to change.

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Dave Rennie will be in the job at least until the next World Cup in 2023.

Certainly the Brumbies deserved to win the Super Rugby AU grand final on Saturday, but even with Thorn’s Reds showing their immaturity, they still twice fought back to be within an unconverted try of the Canberra-based side at the death.

McKellar predicted afterwards that there was little doubt in his mind the Brumbies and Reds would fight out many an epic contest in years to come and it is fair to say that rivalry will extend to the two coaches. That is, of course, if Thorn decides to remain at the helm of a group of players he has moulded since they were teenagers.

“I’ve been through the review with them at Queensland on the coaching and there is a real desire to keep him,” Johnson told News Corp.

“It’s a decision Brad has got to make because we want to keep him in the system. We want to keep him. I certainly do.

“He has been such an experienced, champion player but it is such a different skill set, going from playing to coaching. He was on the training wheels for the first couple of years, like us all, but he’s grown in the job and he is now a very good coach.

Good enough to become the Wallabies head coach? “In time I don’t see why not. He is improving all the time. The one thing that Brad is is consistent and true to himself. He is what he is and he doesn’t try to become anything that he’s not. Personality traits like that are hard to find and hard not to like.”

Will Brad Thorn be back coaching the Reds next season?

Though it involved cutting some of Queensland rugby’s favourite sons, including Quade Cooper, James Slipper and Izack Rodda, Thorn has stripped the Reds culture back to bare timber and completely rebuilt the team. It has been a process that has attracted attention outside Australia.

“You think of the likes of Brad Thorn in Queensland, there is a lot of affection for him in this part of the world,” Crusaders CEO Colin Mainsbridge told the NZ media recently.

“There is a lot of admiration for what he has done at the Reds.”

The fear is that his work has also been noticed closer to home, most especially the Brisbane Broncos. For a club that prides itself on playing for the jersey, it has fallen on hard times and could very well turn to Thorn to trigger a Reds-style renaissance.

In the aftermath of the grand final, a story has surfaced that illustrates how Thorn is able to motivate his Queensland players, and not just the young ones.

Five-eighth James O’Connor, it has emerged, was unable to train in the week leading up to the grand final because of a badly corked bicep but, after talking with Thorn, went out and played the entire game, standing up to a late barrage of high balls from Brumbies replacement halfback Nic White.

Dan McKellar‘s standing only improved with the Brumbies’ title success.

“Every time he went up for one of those high ball, I knew he was going to cop a whack on it,” said Reds general manager of professional rugby, Sam Cordingley.

“All the plaudits went to (Brumbies five-eighth Noah) Lolesio and fair enough, but I thought that James did a remarkable job under the circumstances.”

O’Connor’s injury could have ramifications for the Wallabies after it was revealed that Jordan Petaia is in doubt for the October 11 Bledisloe Cup clash with the All Blacks with the hip flexor he injured in setting up the Reds’ opening try of the final.

One of the solutions if Petaia’s dreadful run of ill-luck with injuries does persist could be to play O’Connor at 13.

Another Queensland player, Hunter Paisami, could come in for a Test debut at outside centre although coach Dave Rennie could well send out an SOS to Tevita Kuridrani, the 61-Test Brumbies veteran who was omitted from the original Wallabies squad but looked to be playing his way back to his best in the grand final.