Reds Super Rugby winning coach Ewen McKenzie has extended his contract with Queensland Rugby until the 2014 season.
rugbyweek
McKenzie is the leading candidate to succeed current Wallabies coach Robbie Deans but has extended his contract with the Reds rather than gambling that he will be offered the Wallabies job.
By the end of his new extended contract McKenzie will have been with the Reds for five years but the extension will not rule him out of the Wallaby job.
McKenzie said his decision to stay on at Queensland Rugby was simple.
“We’ve done a good job the last couple of years, but there’s still a lot of work to be done and a number of challenges ahead in the current landscape,” McKenzie said.
“As you’ve seen, we’re already working around the 2014 window with the recent re-signing of Digby Ioane, Jake Schatz and Adam Wallace-Harrison.”
“We’re currently doing a lot of planning in and around this space and it was an easy decision to give my commitment, along with Jim and Rod, to seeing the job through.
“We have a good idea of what lies ahead and what needs to be achieved in Queensland in terms of the future success of our Code and I have given my commitment to being part of it.”
McKenzie says that he wanted to lock in his current position first rather than sitting around hoping that he will land the Wallabies job.
“Getting the Wallaby job is all about timing. You could end up not having any coaching job at all,” McKenzie told The Daily Telegraph explaining his rationale for the extension at the Reds.
“Coaching the Reds and the whole environment in Queensland rugby is exciting.
“We are on a wave and you want to ride it as long as possible and keep leading from the front with all we still want to achieve.”
McKenzie was offered the Wallabies job in 2006 when John Connolly took on a short-term contract for Eddie Jones who had been axed and then in 2008 Deans took over the Wallabies.
The Reds will be relieved as McKenzie’s extension as it means he will spend the next three years in Queensland and this will bring stability as he controls player retention and recruitment.
“Players want to know who is leading the place,” Queensland Rugby Union chairman Rod McCall said.
“Ewen has not only stabilised Queensland rugby, he is now one of the pillars to fix it for good so it’s strong for the next 20 to 50 years.”
McKenzie will still be in the running to replace Deans in 2014 especially if the current coach loses the three-Test series against the British and Irish Lions in 2013.
The complication will be that if he is appointed McKenzie would be coaching the Reds in May of 2014 and then the Wallabies in June 2014 and then back to the Reds in July to finish his contract.