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Former World Cup-winning skipper Nick Farr-Jones has warned the Australian Rugby Union not to appoint New Zealander Robbie Deans as coach of the Wallabies.
"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," Farr-Jones was quoted as saying in the Adelaide Advertiser.
"I'm very nervous on this as a possible direction. It wouldn't be Australian."
Current coach John Connolly will step down after the World Cup in France this year.
Farr-Jones said the risk of tinkering with the very fabric of Wallabies' culture was too great to pursue Deans, despite the success the Canterbury Crusaders mentor had enjoyed.
ARU chief executive John O'Neill has said Deans is a viable contender with leading Australian candidates such as David Nucifora, Laurie Fisher, Ewen McKenzie and Scott Johnson.
Farr-Jones said Deans was "a great guy with an unblemished pedigree" as a coach. "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."
- NZPA
