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Ewen McKenzie to quit Reds in Test bid
- by:Wayne Smith
- From:The Australian
- March 19, 201312:00AM
Queensland's director of coaching Ewen McKenzie will depart the Reds at the end of the season. Picture: Darren England Source: The Courier-Mail
EWEN McKenzie will leave the Queensland Reds at the end of the Super Rugby season to pursue his dream of coaching at Test level.
Whether that is as coach of the Wallabies remains to be seen. Current Wallabies coach Robbie Deans is contracted until the end of the year but that could change if Australia loses the three-Test series to the British and Irish Lions in June-July.
Even then, there would be no guarantee that McKenzie, who has been regarded as the heir-apparent for the past two years, would succeed him.
Jake White has performed outstandingly as coach of the Brumbies side currently leading the Super Rugby competition, and while there remains a solid block of opinion that an Australian should coach the Wallabies, White's achievement in coaching the Springboks to a World Cup triumph in 2007 provides a powerful counter-argument.
McKenzie, who took over at the Reds at the end of the 2009 season in which they finished second last and within two years turned them into Super Rugby champions, insisted that the timing of his announcement that he will be leaving Ballymore at the end of the season was not intended to pressure the Australian Rugby Union to make an early call on the Wallabies coaching job.
"It's appropriate to be up front about it now because the (contracting) decisions on the 2014 season are being made now," McKenzie told The Australian.
"Me making my decision allows 50 other people in this organisation to make their decisions. I'd love to have the opportunity to coach the Wallabies but I don't control the timing of the ARU. Things at this level are all about timing. But this way I create my own timing."
If McKenzie's timing turns out to be astray as far as the Wallabies job is concerned, he almost certainly would be offered a head coaching position with a Six Nations side. There is not another provincial coach in the world who could match him for experience.
Indeed, the worry for Australia is that another country, with Ireland the leading contender after finishing second last in the Six Nations, will snap him up as head coach before the Wallabies position is even put up for grabs.
On Saturday, in the Reds' match against the Bulls at Suncorp Stadium, he will equal Deans's record for most Super Rugby matches as a head coach: 120 (66 with the Waratahs from 2003-08, 54 with the Reds).
His clipboard career started as a coaching co-ordinator with the Brumbies in 1998 before he served four years as Wallabies assistant coach, which meant he was in the coaches box for the extra-time World Cup final against England in 2003. He even has had experience in the northern hemisphere as boss of Stade Francais in 2008-09.
Happily for the Reds, they not only have a succession plan in place but the successor as well, with former Western Force head coach Richard Graham coming on board late last year.
"We've been planning for this because it was always obvious to us that Ewen is the best coach in Australia and was always going to end up coaching at Test level," Queensland Rugby Union chairman Rod McCall said.
"To be honest, we are fortunate to have had Ewen involved for this long. In my opinion he probably should have been coaching the Wallabies already."
Reds chief executive officer Jim Carmichael said that as speculation intensified that Deans might be replaced as Wallabies coach following the 2011 World Cup, the QRU decided it needed to prepare for McKenzie's departure.
The plan decided upon was to target and recruit his successor, promote McKenzie this year to director of coaching but still leave him in overall control of the Reds while Graham, already with the title of head coach, was groomed to take over next year.
In the event of Deans being reappointed as head coach through to the 2015 Rugby World Cup or someone else getting the job, McKenzie would have moved into a new position of director of rugby next year.
"We thought Ewen might morph into a suit rather than a polo shirt," was how McCall colourfully described the role the Reds had envisaged for him.
In effect, the move would have redirected McKenzie into an administrative role which at the time he was enthusiastic about.
"But I came to realise that coaching is what I love doing," he said. "I've been coaching at this level now for about 13 years and I'm ready to move up to the next level."
Ironically, McKenzie was offered the Wallabies position back in 2006 following the removal of Eddie Jones, only to turn it down because he didn't believe he was ready to take on the national team. Then, when he did apply for the job after John Connolly stepped down following the 2007 World Cup, he was passed over.
Pat Howard, now Cricket Australia's high-performance manager but in 2007 the man in the corresponding job in Australian rugby, initially decided to appoint David Nucifora as Wallabies coach only for events to take a dramatic turn when Deans instead was awarded the job.
McKenzie's latest decision throws the spotlight squarely on to Graham who, though nominally head coach, has been in charge of the Reds defence this season. In that role he has been an outstanding success. But questions still remain over his ability as head coach.
After 1 1/2 seasons with the Force he was sacked last April - after announcing his move to the Reds - having recorded only seven wins and two draws from 24 matches.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...-1226600110105