Brumbies coach Dan McKellar endorses Eddie Jones for Wallabies

The leading Australian candidate for the Wallabies coaching position believes Eddie Jones would do a wonderful job.

Brumbies coach Dan McKellar believes he is not ready to step up to the Wallabies. Picture: Getty Images

Brumbies coach Dan McKellar, the leading Australian candidate for the Wallabies coaching position, believes he is not yet ready to coach at Test level at this stage of his career but is adamant that Eddie Jones would do a wonderful job if given the chance.

McKellar, 43, is going into his seventh season with the Brumbies, with the last two as head coach, taking them to third in Super Rugby earlier this season after finishing 10th in his debut campaign in 2018.

And while he is flattered that he is being spoken of as a possible candidate to replace Michael Cheika, he believes he is not yet ready to coach at the highest level.

“You just need experience,” McKellar told The Australian. “I’m going into year three (at the Brumbies) and I am very comfortable in the role I’m in and hope to have a long career leading the Brumbies. Do I have aspirations down the track to coach at the highest level? Yes, of course, but I’m in no rush.

“I understand that I’ve got to continue to build and gain valuable experience, lead a really successful and professional program here that allows us to have consistent success over a long period of time. I don’t necessarily feel you have to go and coach overseas, but all those things you consider. Of course you do.”

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Ironically, Jones — who was the second coach ever appointed by the Brumbies following in the footsteps of Rod Macqueen — invited McKellar and his assistant, Peter Hewat, to spend time with him at the England training base at Pennyhill Park last year.

“It was an outstanding coaching set-up,” said McKellar. “You talk about dotting the Is and crossing the Ts, well, from what I witnessed, he does it about 25 times, over and over and over. It is clear he has an incredible work ethic and leaves no stone unturned.”

Certainly he feels indebted to Jones for the legacy he and Macqueen helped to create at the Brumbies.

“They kicked off that legacy 100 per cent. And I think that’s why, as a club, for a long time now we’ve had a reputation that allows players to come here and flourish if they are prepared to work hard. The one thing – and it’s got nothing to do with Eddie – the one thing in any program I’m involved in, I always want it to be incredibly detailed, thorough, planned and an environment that is going to allow the players to get better but also be comfortable and confident in using their own abilities. I’ve always been that way as a coach.

“I think we’ve run a high-quality program at the Brumbies the last couple of years and all my focus is going into year three is to make sure that that goes up a level again. And we’re always trying to ensure that our players are in a program where they are genuinely going to get better and improve and push to be the best they can be.”

Although McKellar believes Rugby Australia should at least be sounding out Jones about taking the Wallabies job, the reality is that if England win the World Cup by beating South Africa in the final on Saturday in Yokohama, an already daunting financial task could become nigh on impossible.

It would not just be that the Rugby Football Union would be in a position to offer him a considerable wage rise but, if the experience of Clive Woodward – the only England coach to win the World Cup so far – is an indicator, Jones would stand to collect a wide range of lucrative endorsements, provided, of course, that he remains in Britain. And while Warren Gatland has been named as coach of the British and Irish Lions tour for the 2021 campaign to South Africa, it certainly would close the circle if Jones returned to Australia as Lions coach for their next campaign against the Wallabies, in 2025, when he would be 66.

Meanwhile, the frontrunner for the Wallabies job, New Zealander Dave Rennie — now coach of the Glasgow Warriors — has spoken to the Scottish media, insisting he has not signed with Rugby Australia.

“Probably the easiest way to clarify this is that I know there is a lot of speculation that I’ve already signed (a contract with RA) and people have been informed and all that stuff,” Rennie said.

“That’s not accurate. I haven’t signed and I will definitely be here till the end of this season which is the end of June. It’s important to me. I’m committed to the Warriors and I won’t leave earlier.”

Certainly that would be cutting it fine to put his stamp on the Wallabies. Their first confirmed 2020 Test is against Ireland at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on July 4.

Asked again if he would be interested in taking on the Australian team, Rennie replied: “Yeah, I think we have discussed this before, so yeah, absolutely.”