Rugby Australia crisis yet to deter Dave Rennie taking Wallabies reins

Dave Rennie has given not a hint that the turmoil in Australian rugby has deterred him from becoming Wallabies head coach in July.

Wallabies coach in waiting Dave Rennie. Picture: Nikki Short

Dave Rennie has given not a hint that the current turmoil in Australian rugby has deterred him from taking up the position of Wallabies head coach in July, Rugby Australia bosses Raelene Castle and Scott Johnson insisted on Monday.

Rennie, the three-time Super Rugby title-winner currently coaching the Glasgow Warriors, was reported by the Sydney Morning Herald to be likely to reconsider his future should Castle, the women who hired him as Wallabies coach, be overthrown as Rugby Australia’s chief ­executive.

The Australian, by contrast, was told by its sources that the new financial constraints now gripping the game in this country were of far greater concern to the New Zealander. The likelihood that his rumoured $1 million-a-year salary could take a savage hit once he lands in Australia was supposedly giving him second thoughts about taking the Wallabies job, a position he accepted even though he was right in the hunt for the All Blacks coaching position.

A salary cut is not an unrealistic fear. Every senior administrator at Rugby Australia has taken at least a 30 per cent cut in salary as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Castle having volunteered to give up 50 cent of her wage.

Rennie himself is one of a number of senior coaches in the Scottish system who have taken a 25 per cent salary deferral, so any austerity measures he encounters in Australia would not come as a major shock.

It is understood no one from Rugby Australia has raised the issue of a salary cut with him, for the very good reason that he does not become one of its employees until July 1.

“He hasn’t started yet so it’s not applicable,” Johnson said.

Castle dismissed the report that Rennie was considering lashing himself to the mast and would sacrifice his long-held ambition of coaching at Test level if she herself was ousted as part of the campaign to install former Wallabies hooker Phil Kearns as RA chief executive.

There is no question that Rennie was highly impressed with Castle when she flew to Jersey to interview him for the job.

“Smart and tough, really keen for a change, and driven,” Rennie said in January. “I felt the leadership here was really strong. I felt they had my back. That was a big part of it.”

Castle insisted that everything was proceeding according to plan in terms of Rennie coming to Australia to coach the national side.

“That is 100 per cent correct,” Castle told The Australian. “We continue to be in consistent dialogue with Dave and are planning for a Wallabies season, however it might eventuate.”

Indeed, the only thing that could complicate Rennie’s arrival is the possibility of the Pro14 competition being restarted later this year. The final, set down for the Cardiff City Stadium in June, has already been cancelled because of the coronavirus but rugby officials are still hoping that the season can be resumed at some stage. If that was to happen, Rennie’s Glasgow Warriors side, currently third in conference A, would be involved in the playoffs if they maintain their present position. In that event, Glasgow would need to contact RA for permission for Rennie to see out the season with the Warriors. Johnson indicated RA’s answer would be dictated by circumstances in this country.

If the international borders remained closed at that time, allowing only a domestic competition to be played in Australia, then Rennie would be given permission to remain in Europe — where his Scottish bosses would continue to pay him. But if borders have been reopened, making possible a Bledisloe Cup series against the All Blacks, then Australia would enforce its contract and require him to come to Sydney to prepare the Wallabies.

The coronavirus has brought a halt, perhaps permanently, to RA’s search for a Wallabies forwards coach. Johnson had sounded out a number of well-credentialed coaches, including Brumbies head coach Dan McKellar and his assistant Laurie Fisher, but he has not made an ­appointment.

“We were deep in discussions with a lot of people but this hit (the coronavirus) and we just parked it,” Johnson said.

Asked whether the financial problems that have caused standowns throughout Australian rugby and forced RA to hold crisis talks with the Rugby Union Players Association over player salary cuts could leave the forwards coaching job permanently parked, Johnson admitted: “It could be.”