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Queensland Reds coach Brad Thorn has declared his interest in becoming Wallabies coach after Dave Rennie.
While Brumbies coach and Wallabies assistant Dan McKellar, who is leaving the Super Rugby team to focus fulltime on the national side after this season, is Rennie’s heir apparent, Thorn’s ambitions add a layer of intrigue.
Thorn, who represented the All Blacks in union and Australia in rugby league, has previously batted away questions about his plans after coaching the Reds.
But on Tuesday he dropped a bombshell in an interview with Wayne Smith in the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Australia is where the challenge is for me and where I’m connected to,” Thorn said in what Smith decided “effectively put an end to speculation that he might one day put his hand up to coach the All Blacks, for whom he played 59 Tests including the 2011 World Cup final triumph.”
:Reds coach Brad Thorn. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Thorn added: “I hold the Wallabies coaching role in high esteem. It’s a privilege and a responsibility. I don’t believe you should just walk in there and get the job. You have to earn the right.
“Right now, I’m really enjoying my time with Queensland. We feel we have built a quality program here and that’s where our focus remains.
“If the opportunity presented itself at the right time later down the track, I would be honoured to coach the Wallabies.”
McKellar is still considered the logical Rennie replacement and Smith quoted an unnamed Rugby Australia source as claiming: “In the context of getting greater changes around high-performance coaching, Thorn has not been good to work with. He has not been a team player. A decision doesn’t have to be made now but he had better turn that around – and quickly.”
Thorn has a reputation for tough love and he was unable to find a way to work with stars such as Quade Cooper, Izack Rodda and Karmichael Hunt, while bringing through some talented youngsters and reinvigorating James O’Connor.
Rennie will see Australia through to the next World Cup in 2023 with expectations he will review his position at that time.
All Blacks midfielder Anton Lienert-Brown has all but declared himself out of the Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship with an expectation of a six month stint on the sidelines after undergoing shoulder surgery.
He confirmed the setback, suffered in Super Rugby Pacific at the weekend, in a post on Instagram.
“Shoulder is going to need a bit more work than I was hoping,” Lienert-Brown wrote.
“Going under the knife this week which will put me out for 6 months. A bump in the road but the journey continues. I’ll be back … appreciate all the support”.
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Meanwhile the Highlanders have lost two key forwards for eight weeks each.
All Blacks loose forward Shannon Frizell and lock Manaaki Selby-Rickit suffered knee injuries during their team’s 37-17 win over Moana Pasifika.
Mike Brown has added to the scrutiny on Eddie Jones by saying he was on the receiving end of a foul-mouthed rant when the England coach left him out of his squad for the 2019 World Cup in Japan, reports AFP.
Fullback Brown was involved in a training camp bust-up with Ben Te’o during an England training camp in Treviso.
Jones, who by that stage had left Brown out since giving him the last of his 72 England caps in 2018, used the incident to explain why he had left both backs out if his squad.
Brown said Te’o was responsible for the altercation by punching him in the face, but insisted an angry Jones was in no mood to listen to his explanations.
“That wasn’t the reason why I didn’t go to the World Cup,” Brown, England’s most capped full-back, told RugbyPass.
“I think it was just easier for Eddie to put it on that, as I’d kind of been getting pushed out of the team as that season had gone on.
“I said to him, ‘Look, I understand selection is what it is, but don’t put it on that. You haven’t even asked me what happened. With all due respect, I didn’t really do anything. I don’t feel like it was my fault.” The now 36-year-old Brown said Jones told him his security guards had witnessed the incident but reacted furiously when the player asked to see their written reports.
“So he just switched and turned on me, effing and blinding,” recalled Brown. “It wasn’t nice.
“He said, ‘Who the f*** do you think you are?’ because I was going back at him and he doesn’t like that.
“It’s a shame it ended up like that. I wanted clarity on why I wasn’t getting picked, not some made-up excuse.” In Brown’s absence, England went all the way to the World Cup final in Japan only to be well beaten 32-12 by South Africa in the showpiece match.
Brown’s comments come with Jones having presided over a second successive Six Nations where England lost three games, with the Rugby Football Union issuing a vote of confidence in the veteran Australian coach.
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