Eddie Jones resignation: The potential candidates for the next Wallabies coach

Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 9:48 PM
AW
by AAP and Nathan Williamson
The coaching candidates to takeover from Eddie Jones. Photo: Getty Images
The coaching candidates to takeover from Eddie Jones. Photo: Getty Images

Eddie Jones has officially stepped away from the Wallabies coaching position, almost ten months after taking over the job.

Jones' departure had been widely speculated but confirmed by Rugby Australia on Tuesday.

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He finished with just two wins from his nine games, including their first defeat to Fiji in close to 70 years.

It now leaves the Wallabies searching for their next option as Jones departs his deal almost four years earlier than he signed for.

World Cup-winner Stephen Larkham and fellow former Wallabies assistant Dan McKellar are expected to be RA's top targets.

Former national forwards coach McKellar was publicly hailed as the man-in-waiting under Rennie and quit his Brumbies job to concentrate on the Wallabies.

But he walked soon after the polarising Jones took over.

The 47-year-old is currently head coach at Leicester Tigers in the UK, and while he long coveted the top job, it may not hold the same golden lure it once did.

With a preference for an Australian coach, RA may turn to current ACT Brumbies boss Larkham.

Brumbies coach and World Cup-winner Stephen Larkham is in the Wallabies frame.

Larkham was attack coach under then-Wallabies mentor Michael Cheika at the 2015 World Cup, before an acrimonious split in 2019 when he was blamed for Australia's run of poor results.

The champion five-eighth spent three years coaching Irish provincial side Munster before returning to the Brumbies in 2023.  

Former coacg Cheika has been linked to a second stint with the Wallabies after coaching Argentina to this year's World Cup semi-finals and Australia to the 2015 decider.

Following the Pumas' 26-23 third-place playoff loss to England, Cheika said he had "no idea" if he would continue as Argentina coach or "what the future holds".

A left-field option for RA would be to gamble on NSW coach Darren Coleman, who helped turn the Waratahs from wooden-spooners to Super Rugby Pacific quarter-finalists in his two years in the post.

Waratahs assistant Jason Gilmore is another option, having served as Australia A coach.

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