A Wallabies coaching dream team of Eddie Jones and Dave Rennie won’t become a reality at the Rugby World Cup with both men emphatically shooting down the idea.
Jones, the former Australia and England coach, was asked by The Guardian whether he would consider working with Rennie and the answer was crystal clear.
“I’m not an assistant coach, mate. I’m not interested in that sort of job,” Jones said.
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Rennie also told reporters on Monday that there was no chance of him working with Jones this year.
“We’ve had no discussions around that,” Rennie said.
“There’s no plan to make alterations to the coaching group at this stage. I haven’t spoken to (Rugby Australia chairman) Hamish (McLennan) and I haven’t spoken to (RA chief executive) Andy (Marinos) about it. My assumption is we’re going to push on…
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“There’s a fair bit of speculation about a lot of things but my focus is on this group and the World Cup.
“Anything else happening beyond that will be clarified over the next few months.”
Rennie is off contract after the 2023 World Cup in France and has been linked with a move to Japan.
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He said no deal had been confirmed.
“All I’ll say is I haven’t signed with Kobe,” Rennie said.
“My focus is totally here. We’ve spent a big chunk of December when we got back doing reviews and World Cup planning. What happens beyond 2023 will probably be a bit clearer in the next few months.”
What is clear is that the Wallabies will be without Scott Wisemantel for the World Cup after the highly regarded assistant coach announced his surprise resignation on Friday.
“It’s a massive disappointment,” Rennie admitted.
“He’s a helluva coach and a great man. We were discussing it in December.
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“In this game, you spend an enormous amount of time away from home. He’s been doing that for a number of campaigns with England at the last World Cup, Japan prior to that, Samoa prior to that and Australia prior to that.
“It’s hard to replace that sort of experience. We understand he had to make a commitment to his family. It’s the right decision for him.
“We’ll work through that process over the next few weeks.”
Jones, meanwhile, told The Guardian that he had “a couple of good options” for his next coaching gig after being sacked by England last year.
“I’m getting to the stage of talking contracts so I’ll make a decision in the next couple of weeks,” the Australian said.
“They have very different aspects and the decision will be made on where I feel I could make the most contribution over the next four or five years.”
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