Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n
Arriving at Sydney Airport from Paris early on Wednesday morning, Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan walked into an arrivals hall filled with warm smiles and welcome-home balloons for returned travellers.<\/p>\n
For McLennan, though, there was only a cold, hard question: do you regret hiring Eddie Jones?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether Eddie was the right call or not, I think that\u2019s that\u2019s almost irrelevant now because the system\u2019s broken, and we need to fix it,\u201d he said of Jones, whose resignation he accepted on Tuesday after a disastrous World Cup campaign in France.<\/p>\n
McLennan said he believed Jones\u2019s successor should an Australian, although he added that he had not been in touch with former Wallabies mentor Michael Cheika, who guided Argentina to the semi-finals of this World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Australian coaches tend to have a more intimate knowledge of grassroots [rugby],\u201d McLennan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you listen to what has been said, it\u2019s around contracting strength and conditioning, player identification, so if you\u2019ve grown up through the system, you could argue that you might have a more intimate knowledge of that, but we want the best coach so the rugby committee is going to run that process.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hamish McLennan arrived back in Sydney with plenty of baggage.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Nine<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cI can tell you, there\u2019s no shortage of high-quality coaches that want to come and coach the Wallabies.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked whether former Wallabies assistant coach Dan McKellar was the frontrunner to replace Jones, McLennan remained noncommittal.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you can put your bets on anyone at the moment,\u201d McLennan said. \u201cThere\u2019ll be some overseas coaches, there\u2019ll be local ones and there will be ones that have been part of the system. We\u2019ve got a completely open mind.\u201d<\/p>\n But one thing McLennan was certain of was his continuing tenure in the top job. After three years at the helm, which have included this failed World Cup campaign and the early resignation of the coach he played a key role in appointing, he reaffirmed his belief that he is the right man to help lead Australian rugby forward.<\/p>\n Hamish McLennan is adamant he is the right man to lead Rugby Australia forward.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Nine<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cI love the sport and I\u2019m not a quitter,\u201d McLennan said. \u201cIn my business career I\u2019ve worked with a lot of people who\u2019ve gone through incredible hardship and I want to teach my kids and my family \u2013 people don\u2019t give up. I\u2019m really passionate about solving it for rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n He said rugby was in a healthier position now than when he took the top job in 2020.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re better than we were three years ago, even though the World Cup performance was terrible\u201d he said. \u201cWe inherited a bit of a burning mess.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of interest in rugby; we\u2019ll get through this. It\u2019s interesting, everyone\u2019s talking about rugby. So a lot of a lot of the sceptics say the codes dead, and it\u2019s not. We\u2019ve got a World Cup coming up in 2027. Now we\u2019ve got the [British and Irish] Lions in 2025. So we\u2019ll bat on and we\u2019ll solve it.\u201d<\/p>\n Eddie Jones resigned as Wallabies coach less than 12 months into a five-year deal.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n When asked if he had anything to say to Australian rugby fans who might have lost confidence in him, McLennan replied: \u201cWell, I think if you look at what I\u2019ve done, I\u2019ve come in, and I\u2019ve given my [board] fees back to women\u2019s and Indigenous rugby, we secured credit when we have no money in the bank, we secured the World Cups in 2027 and 2029 when we had no money in the bank, we paid the women, the Wallaroos, for the first time ever.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I\u2019ve got an intimate knowledge of all that needs to be done. So our performance of the World Cup was a setback and I\u2019m not gilding the lily, but the truth of the matter is, we\u2019ve got a board and a management team that know what needs to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n McLennan attended the World Rugby Awards at a glittering ceremony in Paris on Sunday but said that he hadn\u2019t spoken to any of his Japanese counterparts about Jones.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t [speak to Japanese officials] and didn\u2019t particularly want to go there,\u201d McLennan said. \u201cI know [rugby reporter for this masthead] Tom Decent certainly has views that Eddie did [an] interview, Eddie\u2019s denied it. Eddie even said to me on the weekend that he\u2019s got no job to go to. I think in the fullness of time, we\u2019ll find out what went on.\u201d<\/p>\n McLennan said that while he would be \u201cdisappointed\u201d if Jones eventually returned to Japan for a second stint with the Brave Blossoms, he stood by the original decision to appoint him as Wallabies coach.<\/p>\n \u201cAll I\u2019d say to the rugby public is that you\u2019ve got to continue to make decisions and not all of them work out,\u201d McLennan said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf this was a business, you would find that you don\u2019t get a 100-per-cent success rate and I stand by the calls.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d say to the rugby public again: is it just the coaches or a system?<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at all of the major progressive rugby unions around the world, they\u2019ve all centralised and we haven\u2019t changed at the professional side for more than 30 years and I\u2019ve been saying that for three years.\u201d<\/p>\n News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Most Viewed in Sport<\/h2>\n
From our partners<\/h3>\n