Former NSW Waratahs assistant coach Todd Louden has a good record and the necessary e
Former NSW Waratahs assistant coach Todd Louden has a good record and the necessary experience
FORMER NSW Waratahs assistant coach Todd Louden has expressed interest in the vacancy on the Wallabies coaching staff.
Louden, who was the Waratahs attack and backs coach under Ewen McKenzie in 2008, has since been coaching Japanese club Ricoh.
Out of contract at the end of the year, Louden has advised the ARU he is interested in replacing Wallabies skills coach Richard Graham, who has been appointed head coach of the Western Force.
Louden, who was also assistant coach of the Bulls when the South African team won the Super rugby title in 2007, certainly has the necessary experience and knowledge to act as the Wallabies skills coach.
ARU chief executive John O'Neill was scheduled to meet with Australia coach Robbie Deans and high-performance manager David Nucifora this week to discuss the coaching vacancy.
O'Neill indicated earlier this week that a decision on the assistant coach would be made at the ARU board meeting in Sydney next Friday.
But it was unlikely the ARU would rush into a decision on a replacement for Graham.
It is more likely the ARU board will endorse a proposal to have Nucifora join the coaching staff, possibly as a co-ordinator or looking after the lineout.
Nucifora is already a national selector and is set to coach the Wallabies midweek team on its upcoming tour of Europe.
The ARU would want to give itself more time to fully assess a range of potential candidates for Graham's job.
Meanwhile, the NSWRU has appointed motorsport administrator Jason Allen as the Waratahs' new chief executive.
Allen was chief executive of the South Australian Motor Sport Board, which was responsible for the Clipsal 500 V8 Supercars race, for the last two years.
But it was Allen's experience in sports marketing that appealed to the Waratahs.
Allen was national general manager consumer sales of Vodafone from 2004 to 2008 and general manager of the company's involvement with the sports industry. Even though Vodafone ended its naming rights sponsorship of the Wallabies the month before Allen's appointment in March 2004, he was involved in the company's sleeve sponsorship of the Waratahs and an individual sponsorship of former Test winger Lote Tuqiri, which helped to keep him from switching back to rugby league in 2006.
NSW chairman Ed Zemancheff acknowledged they were not seeking a traditional rugby administrator to replace Jim L'Estrange, but a CEO with a strong sales and marketing background.
"When we resolved to separate the business and the game of rugby at NSW we needed a different result and to achieve that you have to do things differently," Zemancheff said.
"We envisaged someone who was a proven sports administrator and experienced in growing a business. When you strip it back, we are selling a product called rugby. That's what modern sporting businesses are all about."
The Australian and New Zealand Rugby Unions have confirmed the fourth Bledisloe Cup will go ahead as scheduled in Hong Kong on October 30, despite disappointing ticket sales.
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