Rugby Australia boss would ‘make same call again’ despite Eddie Jones disaster

Rugby Australia (RA) chairman Hamish McLennan has defended his decision to sack Dave Rennie and hire Eddie Jones as head coach.

The governing body made the decision to get rid of Rennie in January following a disappointing time in charge, which ended in a win rate of under 38 per cent.

They duly brought in Jones for his second stint in charge of the Wallabies, with his first coming between 2001 and 2005.

However, there were signs that Australia were starting to come good in the 2022 end-of-year series when they pushed both Ireland and France extremely close, but that was not enough to save Rennie.

Struggles under Eddie

It was a decision which would prove to be an unmitigated disaster for RA as the national team won just two matches – against Georgia and Portugal – with Jones at the helm.

They exited the Rugby World Cup at the pool stage for the first time ever and it culminated in the 63-year-old resigning as head coach following the global tournament.

They are now in the process of finding the next person to lead the Wallabies, but McLennan refused to take the blame for their dreadful year.

“I think it’s unfair because it was socialised amongst the board and we were all concerned about how the team was performing [under Dave Rennie in 2022],” he told Stan Sport.

“We have had to make a lot of significant calls for rugby over the last three years so I was in a position where I certainly gave a point of view.

“It is unfair to say it was my call only, but I was certainly an advocate for Eddie and I think given the circumstances I would probably make the same call again.

“In business and in life, you don’t have a 100 per cent success rate. You don’t get every call right. I am really gutted.

“I felt so bad after we lost to Wales and there were fans in the street who’d spent their money going over to watch the games and the tournament, and all their hopes had been ripped up.

“But I also want to stick it out and fix it once and for all. I think I am doing it for the right reasons.”

McLennan stopped short of apologising to Rennie, who was sacked because the governing body were concerned that they would fail to make it out of the pool.

“I think by his own acknowledgement he felt accountable to the scoreboard and we honoured the contract exactly as it was written to him,” he said.

“So I think all of those decisions are really difficult and I do feel sorry for him in that regard, because again it is so public for him as it is with Eddie and a lot of coaches and administrators.

“He was given three years. And what I’m trying to say is that it’s not just me making captain’s calls around RA, we’d discussed that in depth and we felt that we needed a change.

“Now Eddie didn’t work out for a whole host of reasons, but I think what we’ve also been saying is the system needs to change, and I’m really determined to get that fixed.”

Budget overspend

McLennan also conceded that they overspent during Jones’ tenure, with the Sydney Morning Herald reporting that it related to pre-World Cup accommodation costs in Paris and having up to 15 extra players based in Europe as injury cover, although none were called up.

“We don’t disclose [figures] but it was over … more than we would like, yeah,” he said.

“We have to have tighter budget control and so we have certainly got a new CEO, and stricter processes that will ensure that doesn’t happen in the future.”

There have been calls for McLennan to follow Jones out of the door, but RA’s chairman has refused to resign and is determined to get it right.

“All I would say to the rugby fans and the stakeholders, I again apologise for what happened at the World Cup but hopefully you see someone with a steely resolve who wants to bat on,” he added.

“Rugby eats itself every three or four years and it has lacked a coherent strategy over a long period of time, and I feel like we are just getting to the point where we will break through.

“I think we are really close to pulling off an historic alignment or centralisation within the code.”

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