Rugby: Dan McKellar pulls out of Wallabies role to stick with Brumbies

Dave Rennie was intent on bringing his heir apparent into the fold, but has been forced to radically overhaul his plans.

Dan McKellar will stay at the Brumbies rather than take a role with the Wallabies

Brumbies coach Dan McKellar has withdrawn from the position of Wallabies forwards coach after his assistant coach in Canberra, Peter Hewat, accepted a coaching job in Japan.

Australian national team boss Dave Rennie was intent on bringing his heir apparent into a coaching position within the Wallabies, but he has been forced to radically overhaul his plans after McKellar felt obligated to remain at the Brumbies.

It is understood that he wanted to remain on the ground to work with his new attack coach following Hewat’s impending departure at the end of the Super Rugby AU season, which culminates in the grand final on Saturday against the Queensland Reds in Canberra.

Rennie is understood to have sounded out the Brumbies’ forwards coach, Laurie Fisher, to take over those duties with the Wallabies, but he again struck problems when he learned that, for family reasons, Fisher was not able to free himself up at this time.

The expectation is that Fisher may be available next year to join the Wallabies coaching staff as forwards coach, although not until after he has seen out another Super Rugby AU season with the Brumbies in 2021.

As a stopgap measure, Rennie has turned to Melbourne Rebels assistant Geoff Parling to join the Wallabies as forwards coach.

The former England and British and Irish Lions lock is regarded as one of the best lineout coaches in the country. Still, he is not Australian and Rennie has made it clear that he wants Australians on his staff, ready to take over when he eventually stands down. So the intention is very much to return to Fisher next year when he becomes available. The Brumbies players have been told of all the movement on the coaching front at the club, but had been sworn to secrecy.

McKellar’s decision to turn down the role is not expected to impact on his likelihood of one day taking over as Wallabies head coach from Rennie. Indeed, the fact that he has placed the Brumbies’ needs ahead of his own career is seen as further evidence that he is the man to one day coach Australia.

Rennie is deeply disappointed that McKellar cannot join his staff, but he fully understands that he would want to have his feet on the ground in Canberra when the new attack coach – who is yet to be appointed — begins his role. “In the end he has had to make a decision,” Rennie said.

“My thinking with Dan is that I was looking for someone beyond my time and Dan has the ability to coach the Wallabies, so the thinking was to get him into the team and have him ready to go post the (2023) World Cup. But obviously that is not going to happen the way I planned it.

“We are going to go with someone who has the skill-set to do the job and to have an intimate knowledge of the players. So we have asked Geoff Parling to come in. He is a very highly respected coach among the boys. He is the obvious choice.”

His appointment completes the Wallabies coaching staff, with Scott Wisemantel and Matt Taylor the assistant coaches in charge of attack and defence, Petrus du Plessis named as scrum coach and now Parling as lineout coach. How the absence of McKellar — and subsequently Fisher — impacts on the Wallabies remains to be seen but certainly they are the only two coaches who know precisely what buttons to push, what levers to pull, to activate the Brumbies’ fearsome driving maul.

Hewat’s decision to take the coaching role in Japan may have triggered this chain reaction but it is an incredible opportunity for one of Australia’s rising young coaches. Certainly he has worked hard to develop the Brumbies’ attacking game and, with the return of Noah Lolesio to the five-eighth position, the side is poised to turn on an attacking masterclass in the grand final.

Lolesio’s return from a two-month hamstring injury lay-off came almost as a bolt from the blue, but he has been training solidly now for a couple of weeks and would have been ready to go last Saturday if the Brumbies, as the first team into the final, had not had the weekend off. Still, McKellar has attempted to make it as easy as possible for him, also recalling Joe Powell to the halfback position. In the eight full matches Lolesio has played this season, Powell has been his starting halfback every time.

“Noah and Joey have played a lot of footy together at the Brumbies, club level, and the NRC and going into a grand final I wanted that combination,” said McKellar. “They both have a clear understanding of how each other plays, know each other well and that’s why I went the way I did.”