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Hamish McLennan’s news drop about the possibility of a Lions vs. ANZAC XV fixture on their 2025 tour Down Under was greeted with excitement by many fans and rugby insiders – with one notable exception.
Wallabies coach Dave Rennie was ice cool about the idea proposed by McLennan the chairman of Rugby Australia and the man who for all intents and purposes is Rennie’s boss.
Rennie was at his curmudgeonly best (or worst?) when asked for a reaction to the news during his press conference early Friday morning.
It might be reading between the lines, but how Rennie reacted let the veil slip slightly on his relationship with his employers.
On Thursday, McLennan told a British rugby writer that discussions were underway with New Zealand Rugby to reprise a combined team. The last time they’d played against the Lions together was in 1989, as Jim Tucker recalled in this piece for The Roar.
Other reporters and fans jumped online to name their potential combined team for 2025, with the usual light-hearted banter about how many Aussies would deserve to share the stage with their All Blacks rivals.
(Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)
As a mechanism to put rugby in the news with an engaging concept, it was a winner. Plenty put aside the brutal realities of scheduling and player interest in 2025, to pick their fantasy teams.
Dave Rennie was not engaging in fantasy – almost pointedly so.
Rennie was first asked about the concept by Sydney Morning Herald journalist Tom Decent, who is on tour with the team.
“I don’t know anything about that,” was his reply – blunt even for a man over-fond of the straight bat.
Later, an English reporter brought the topic back up, telling Rennie that there was a lot of interest in the concept in the UK, and wondering if Rennie might be coach of the combined XV.
That last bit contained a little sting. Rennie is contracted to the Wallabies until the end of the World Cup, but recently told reporters he would have to have his future sorted early in 2023 and would not be prepared to wait beyond the tournament in France. He could feasibly be Wallabies coach in 2025, but it might be out of his control.
“It’s above my paygrade,” Rennie deflected. “I’m not sure around those discussions and probably more important is sorting out a domestic competition between the two countries as opposed to playing a team or picking a team that represents both countries.
“It’ll be interesting to see whether there’s any validity in that.”
It was suggested to Rennie that, “you don’t sound massively enthusiastic about the idea”, a massive understatement in itself.
“Well, look, with all the things going on over the next couple of years … we’ll worry about it when it comes around,” Rennie responded.
Rennie is right – there is a lot to get sorted out in Australian rugby, and he has done his bit when required. When senior staff took a pay cut during COVID, Rennie took one of considerably more – a decision that was said to have cost him $75,000.
He would be right too to be frustrated by Rugby Australia’s commitment to the Giteau Law which, whatever the intended consequences, also serves to prevent him from putting the best XV on the field for every Test.
Imagine the Brazil football team rolling to the FIFA World Cup this month with just three players based overseas. The country would riot.
The law is meant to protect the game in Australia, but by having a weaker Wallabies than could be selected ultimately drags down the public interest. While it’s a massive stretch to suggest that its demise would lead to a race up the rankings, even a World Cup success, if that happened it would potentially do more for the game in Australia than a successful Super Rugby competition. (And yes, I’m aware other viewpoints are available).
Rennie has usually been respectful of the handcuffs, and RA responded to his diplomacy by altering the rules to make it easier for him to pick overseas players earlier in his tenure. But in July he said he would go to Rugby Australia to seek a fourth player and the reply was abrupt.
“The Giteau Law will remain three players,” an RA spokesman told the Herald. “There are no changes on the horizon. RA has no plans and no proposal to consider making any changes at this stage.”
You can understand Rennie’s bemusement that McLennan and the CEO of NZR Mark Robinson are in the media this week talking up a single exhibition match in two years time, rather than finalising a deal to lock down the same domestic competition that is preventing him from playing with a full hand into the World Cup.
McLennan, like Rennie, has played it straight when talking about the Kiwi in the public arena, backing him “absolutely” to take Australia through to the World Cup, even as his win record dipped under 40 percent.
Strain between coaches and suits is as old as sport itself.
And Rennie, it must be remembered was not a employed by McLennan or current CEO Andy Marinos, but his fellow Kiwi Raelene Castle. Cameron Clyne was the chairman, and Rennie’s biggest champion was Scott Johnson.
It’s not to say there is a serious issue between Rennie and his current bosses, but he’s not their man, and we know how that often falls in life and business.
The strain is there if you look closely. How it will develop and evolve, or dissipate? That’s another of those “things going on over the next couple of years” more important to Rennie right now than 80 minutes of footy in two and half years time.