New Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has been officially welcomed and will start meeting the nation’s Super Rugby teams from Wednesday, on a whistle-stop tour of the country.
New Zealander Rennie, who succeeds Michael Cheika, arrived in Sydney on Monday evening during a Six-Nations break for his Scottish Pro14 club Glasgow Warriors.
On Tuesday morning, he made his first visit to Rugby Australia headquarters where he was greeted with a traditional smoking ceremony outside the building.
He was just the second person to get that behind fellow Kiwi and RA CEO Raelene Castle when she started in January 2015.
From that it was on to the business part of the day, as he made himself familiar with RA facilities and met key members of staff at the start of a packed ten-day schedule.
During his time in Australia, Rennie will spend time with his two newly appointed assistant coaches, Matt Taylor (defence), though a forwards coach has yet to be named.
Also on Rennie’s catch up list are Australian under 20s coach Jason Gilmore and RA’s national head of talent management, Adrian Thompson.
On Wednesday, he will begin his tour of the franchises, dropping in on NSW Waratahs in Sydney, where he will attend the Super Rugby season launch the following day.
Rennie won’t take in either of the last two pre-season trials on Thursday between the Brumbies and Rebels in Albury and the Reds and Waratahs in Dalby on Friday.
He will head to Melbourne on Sunday and spend most of Monday with the Rebels.
Much of Tuesday and some of Wednesday will be spent with the Brumbies.
He will head to Queensland later on Wednesday to spend time with the Reds.
Rennie will also attend their captain’s run on Thursday prior to the Reds’ opening round Super game against the Brumbies in Canberra on Friday.
A dual Super Rugby title-winning coach with the Chiefs, Rennie who has been contracted through to the 2023 World Cup, will lead the Wallabies full time from mid-year, once he finishes his commitments in Glasgow.
The Warriors are currently third in Conference A of the Pro14, which brings together teams from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Italy and South Africa.
