"Sitting in the dressing shed with five minutes to go before a Test with a Kiwi coach doing the revving up . . . I don't think so," said Farr-Jones, Australia's victorious World Cup-leader of 1991.

"I'm very nervous on this as a possible direction. It wouldn't be Australian.
..."But, this country has so many chief executives in so many areas of expertise, you can't tell me there isn't an Australian rugby coach out there."

"I reckon there is something special about being coached by a coach from your country," Martin said.
"I would hate to think that it was somebody other than an Australian - we don't need anyone else."

"I would like to think there would be an Australian who could do the job to be truthful."

"I think with five minutes to go I would be listening to a coach whose opinions and principles and knowledge I respect regardless of the country he comes from rather than listening to an Australian I didn't respect," he said.

replicate his masterstroke with Dutch coach Guus Hiddink when Australian soccer boss

"The Socceroos needed a tournament guru. Hiddink was marvellous for the World Cup campaign but I'm very aware that the same formula might not apply to Australian rugby," O'Neill said.
"Deans...credentials are pretty good....It doesn't mean he's a shoo-in by any stretch of the imagination."

O'Neill said he didn't feel compromised by the revelation in his autobiography, It's Only A Game, that he wanted Deans to replace Eddie Jones as Wallaby coach in early 2004.

O'Neill yesterday revealed the six-man panel that will decide the coach to follow Connolly after the World Cup.

New ARU high-performance manager Pat Howard, ARU board members Rod McCall and Mark Connors and former HPU chiefs Jeff Miller and Brett Robinson will work with O'Neill to make a coaching recommendation.

Deans' coaching team may include more New Zealanders, with former Ireland and Wasps coach Warren Gatland yesterday mentioned as a possible assistant Wallabies coach.

The ARU is confident it will secure Deans, despite the New Zealand Rugby Union fervently believing that he will remain at the Canterbury Crusaders after his contract was extended recently for another year.

But this has not deterred those at the ARU wanting Deans to take over. They believe he is the ideal person to revitalise a flagging Wallaby culture, which has had divisions involving coaching staff and Test players over the past year.

If, as expected, NZ wins the World Cup, the path will be clear for Deans to join the Wallabies. There is even a belief that if he becomes the Wallabies' coach, the NZRU may release him from his Crusaders contract early.

Although Deans has been identified as the next All Blacks coach, if Graham Henry's entourage of coaches fails to secure the World Cup in October, NZ sources yesterday said that other prominent identities also will be considered.