The Wallabies have named a former All Black lock as assistant coach to replace England-bound Geoff Parling at the end of the Lions series.
Tom Donnelly, a lock capped 15 times for the All Blacks in 2009-2010 will join Joe Schmidt’s coaching team ahead of The Rugby Championship, Rugby Australia announced in a statement.
Donnelly will replace current assistant coach Geoff Parling, who will return to the UK as coach of Leicester Tigers at the end of the Lions tour.
Donnelly, 43, was an assistant at Western Force this year after two years as an assistant with the Highlanders.
Before that, he was the head coach of NPC side Otago and had a stint leading New Zealand’s Under-20s side when they won the 2022 Oceania Championship.
“I’m honoured to have an opportunity to help contribute to the Wallabies and to work alongside Joe and the wider coaching staff and management,” Donnelly said in a statement.
“Watching from afar, the journey the team is on and the improvement they are making is exciting. I’m looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and doing my part to continue the ongoing growth of the team.”
Rugby Australia’s Director of High Performance, Peter Horne said: “Tom has spent the best part of the last 25 years involved in professional Rugby and his expertise around the lineout and set piece will be highly valuable for the Wallabies.
“He’s got a great understanding of the current Super Rugby Pacific landscape as well as experience playing at the highest level which makes him a great fit for the role.”
There is likely to be a further change to the set up with scrum guru Mike Cron set to be replaced by Queensland’s Zane Hilton ahead of the arrival of Reds coach Les Kiss to take over from Schmidt.
