Glasgow Warriors head coach Dave Rennie has sought to play down links with the soon to be available Australia head coach’s job, but admitted that it was not something that could be completely discounted.
A report in the respected Sydney Morning Herald claimed this week that the New Zealander, who has a formidable reputation Down Under having led the Chiefs to two Super Rugby titles, could be targeted by Scott Johnson - who has quit his job as director of rugby at Murrayfield to take up a similar role at Rugby Australia - as a potential replacement for Michael Cheika when he leaves his post after the World Cup, with Scotland defence coach Matt Taylor, a native Australian, also being lined up to join their coaching team. In stating that their had been no approach, Rennie noted that he recently signed a new deal to stay in Glasgow to the end of next season, even though he knew several international posts were set to become vacant.
“It’s just a bit of speculation I’d say, as often happens when there’s a potential job up for grabs, they look at the options,” said Rennie. “I certainly haven’t spoken to anyone, but my contract takes me through ‘til the middle of 2020. I’d imagine from an international point of view most of these jobs are going to be gobbled up straight after a World Cup. I knew that was probably going to be the case when I signed on for another season.”
Johnson was, however, involved at Murrayfield when Vern Cotter’s very strange appointment was made six years ago, the SRU announcing his appointment before admitting that he would be unable to take up the role for another year due to contractual commitments in France.
Without reneging on his current deal Rennie would be available for the Wallabies next major competition, the 2020 Rugby Championship and when pressed he would not rule out the possibility of taking the job, .
“You never say never do you, but what I’ve said is I’m assuming that like a lot of teams they’ll probably make changes in coaches immediately after the World Cup,” he said. “That’s November 2019. I’m committed here ‘til July 2020, so that’s what I’m saying, it’s unlikely.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here