Wallabies halfback Nic White gave a passionate endorsement of coach Dave Rennie before the team flew to Europe in a bid to lift Australia from a record low of ninth in the world rankings.
Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan last month guaranteed Rennie’s job security through to next year’s Rugby World Cup in France, stating his confidence that the Wallabies were “heading in the right direction.”
Rennie’s record reads 11 wins, 15 losses and three draws ahead of a five Test spring tour which kicks off against Scotland in Edinburgh on October 30.
Watch every match of the Wallabies spring tour of Europe on the home of rugby, Stan Sport. All matches streaming ad-free, live and on demand
Players rarely publicly criticise their coach but White – one of the team’s leaders – went above and beyond in his praise as the team jetted out.
The 32-year-old said the players should be the ones feeling the wrath of Wallabies fans.
“A phenomenal job, unbelievable,” White told 2GB’s Wide World of Sports Radio from Sydney Airport on Wednesday night, when asked about Rennie’s performance.
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“I’ve said this for a while now, we’ve had a really young squad for the last couple of years and I’ve kind of felt that the coaches have been operating I guess above the level of where we players have been playing catch-up. We’re still playing catch-up.
“He drives high standards and as a group we haven’t met them. This year has been pretty challenging, an unforeseen number of injuries which is hard to deal with.
“You want consistency in your 23 and we just haven’t had that this year, just purely due to so many injuries. For me, yeah, I’ve been around a few clubs and a fair few Wallaby coaches and mate, he’s right up there as one of the best I’ve had.”
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Rennie told reporters on Sunday that the buck should stop with him.
“It’s not lost on me that we’ve had results that we should have won that we haven’t won so in the end that falls on me,” the New Zealander said.
But White also endorsed Rennie’s assistants Scott Wisemantel, Dan McKellar and Laurie Fisher and added “we players have got to lift up our end of the bargain.”
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“I think they’re doing a great job and we need to get some results,” White said.
“So that’s what this tour is about for us as a group, get back to the process and make sure we do a bloke like Rens proud and get the results he deserves because we haven’t given it to him for a while now. There might be external pressure but we think he’s great.
“I personally think he’s unbelievable and it’s time for us to step up.”
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White drew confidence from the return of former captain Michael Hooper, who missed the Rugby Championship to focus on his mental health.
The outstanding flanker will compete with Pete Samu and Fraser McReight for a start.
“Awesome for Hoops. He’s trained the house down the last couple of days so he’s certainly raring to go and looks like he hasn’t missed a beat,” White said.
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“As you’d expect from Hoops – I don’t need to pump his tyres up. He’s got a pretty impressive resume and everyone knows what he can do. But it honestly looks like he hasn’t missed a beat. He looks fresh and ready to go and it’ll be a good spring tour.
“We’ll need to lean on that experience, so awesome to have him back.”
After Scotland, the Wallabies take on France, Italy, Ireland and Wales, with only the Italians behind them on the world rankings.
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Ireland and France are ranked No.1 and No.2 respectively.
“Five big matches over there and we get a chance to play the two best teams in the world at the moment,” White said.
“They’re playing some bloody good footy. France have been climbing now for a couple of years, with a young squad and peaking at the right time. Obviously they’re going to be tricky with the World Cup in France next year so that’s a good one for us to have a crack at before next year. And Ireland, again, have been pretty good for a while now.
“So really good for us to test ourselves over there against two sides that are right at the pointy end of the world rankings at the moment. That’s what you want, to test yourselves against the best, so this will be good for us.”
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World rankings
1. Ireland
2. France
3. South Arica
4. New Zealand
5. England
6. Scotland
7. Wales
8. Argentina
9. Australia
10. Japan
Spring tour fixtures
Wallabies vs Scotland, Sunday 30 October, 3.30am AEDT at Murrayfield, Edinburgh
Wallabies vs France, Sunday 6 November, 7am AEDT at Stade de France, Paris
Wallabies vs Italy, Sunday 13 November, 12am AEDT at Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence
Wallabies vs Ireland, Sunday 20 November, 7am AEDT at Aviva Stadium, Dublin
Wallabies vs Wales, Sunday 27 November, 2.15am AEDT at Principality Stadium, Cardiff
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