Rugby Australia poach Kiwi darks arts guru Mike Cron

Rugby Australia has poached another of New Zealand’s most respected coaches to help resurrect the Wallabies in a major coup for the battling code.

The Wallabies have brought in Mike Cron, an expert on scrummaging. Picture: Peter Meecham/Getty Images

Rugby Australia has poached another of New Zealand’s most respected coaches to help resurrect the Wallabies in a major coup for the battling code.

Mike Cron – who is internationally renowned as a guru on the dark arts of scrummaging – has agreed to join the struggling Australian national team as a key assistant to his fellow Kiwi Joe Schmidt.

The uncle of Western Force head coach Simon Cron, Mike Cron has been a top forwards coach for over 30 years, assisting the All Blacks in more than 200 Test matches before recently taking up a consultancy role with World Rugby.

Cron has been involved in six World Cups, five men’s and one women’s, including the 2011 and 2015 tournaments when the All Blacks became the first side to win back-to-back titles.

“Mike has added tremendous value in every program he has been involved with and brings a wealth of knowledge to our coaching group,” Schmidt said.

Former All Blacks assistant coach Mike Cron has ben recruited by Rugby Australia. Picture: Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images

The Wallabies have also appointed the respected Chris Thomson from the ACT Brumbies as the new team manager.

Thomson had been working for the Brumbies as General Manager of Professional Rugby and Pathways since 2022. Before that, he was employed as a high-performance project manager at World Rugby, working with the Fijian Drua, departing after the team won the 2018 National Rugby Championship.

Schmidt, who replaced Eddie Jones as Wallabies head coach, also welcomed his appointment.

“Knowing Chris from his time at World Rugby, he will work extremely hard behind the scenes to make sure we are well organised from an off-field perspective,” he said.

Slowly but surely, the Wallabies’ staff are being stitched together for the battles ahead.

Last month, Schmidt reappointed Laurie Fisher as his defence coach until the end of 2025, when the Wallabies host the British and Irish Lions.

Highly popular among the players, Fisher was one of the first assistants Jones sacked when he came on board.

Schmidt, who took Ireland to the top of the world rankings his time in Europe, had also recruited former Ireland and Rebels analyst Eoin Toolan as skills coach and head of analysis.

Originally published as Rugby Australia poach Kiwi darks arts guru Mike Cron