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Scott Johnson set to leave director of rugby role at Rugby Australia

By AAP
Scott Johnson /Getty

Rugby Australia’s director of rugby Scott Johnson will finish up at the end of the year while the men’s and women’s Sevens coaches will swap jobs in an organisational shake-up announced on Friday.

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Tim Walsh will return to his former position overseeing the women’s Sevens team, whom he steered to gold at the 2016 Olympics, while John Manenti will take jump across to the men’s side.

Johnson was brought on board three years ago to oversee the Wallabies program and former coach Michael Cheika.

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He has also been a Wallabies selector since 2019 and played an integral role in the recruitment of current Australia coach Dave Rennie.

RA intends bringing in a high-performance director who will work as a conduit between Super Rugby clubs and the national body.

RA boss Andy Marinos said Johnson stepped into his position at a “difficult time”.

“On behalf of Australian Rugby, I want to thank Scott for his terrific contribution to the game over the last three years,” Marinos said.

“He stepped into his role at a difficult time … and leaves Australian rugby in a better place.”

Meanwhile, the Sevens swap was also announced following a post-Olympics review, where both teams fell short of expectations.

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The coaches have been away with their current teams in the world series, with Manenti’s women’s team claiming back-to-back titles in the last fortnight.

But the review decided both were better suited to the other’s program, with the pair locked in until the end of 2024.

“After careful consideration, we felt they were the best two coaches to lead the respective programs forward into the future,” Marinos said.

“They both have a lot to offer and we’re looking forward to seeing what they can do over the next three years as we prepare not only for the Commonwealth Games and Sevens World Cup later this year but also the Olympics in Paris in 2024.”

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The coaches will transition in the coming weeks.

Walsh has spent the past three years with the men after his women’s team won silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games when Manenti took over the role.

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J
JW 2 hours ago
All Blacks player ratings vs Australia | Bledisloe Cup I

Yes I know little of South Africa's past teams I'm afraid, theyve obviously had great teams throughout their history.


You raise a tricky dilemma. Any team is a sum of their parts. To make a point, lets say that South Africa aren't a team that has been able to take advantage, or use all if it's 'parts', to a maximum before, were as you could say that 2015 AB did use all of it's parts and become the 'most complete' team in history. Now a) that might not be exactly true of either team, and b) even if it was true one could argue that doesn't mean the result is going to go one way or the other. SA "limited" style could win out again ABs "complete" style etc.


I'm of the belief that attack trumps defence, that the ball will always beat the man.. that the AB's having been so good because they found upon the best style of rugby to play and ended up winning against all the odds. They have not had the best players, they make the best of their players. That's what I see clicking in this current side, theyre becoming 'complete' again. I don't know why they've not been able to do it all game. You can point to their discipline but it could easily be a drop in physical conditioning. They've all got bigger, it's been a big area of change in the NZ game. They've also lost cohesion with players being able to come in from Japan.


So yes and no. I think Sacha is someone to enable a complete game, but SA are going to also lose some key 'parts' to there game when the vets retire. Like how NZ still had some 'parts' post 2015, they had no one to link them, hence how I think this team now trumps those because they do look to have someone who can make them complete, despite the individual parts (read "players"). The parts will still matter though, England have some great props coming through, France look to have the best trajectory, will there be enough pieces for Sacha to put together? Your forwards will play a big factor, I really like the idea of BJD offload game adding to that completeness. That certainly doesn't take away from what theyve done, they might indeed have beat that opposite idea, or this new team. Certainly the chance is there to do it, and this current team hasn't been doing it. It will be hard to think of a 'great' team that is actually 'two' teams over a 4 year period!

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