Chris Whitaker is set to be appointed as the Junior Wallabies coach.
The Roar understands the Waratahs great, who featured in two World Cups but earned just 31 Tests after being stuck behind George Gregan, edged out Shannon Fraser for the role. Fraser, who spent years with the Waratahs as a skills coach, recently led the Australian Schoolboys to a win over New Zealand Schools across the ditch.
Whitaker will fill the void left by former World Cup winner and Wallabies assistant coach Nathan Grey, who recently joined Suntory in Japan.
Whitaker, 50, applied for the role after a coaching cleanout at the Waratahs following Dan McKellar’s appointment saw him lose his job at Daceyville. It came after seven years at the Waratahs as an assistant.
Having worked in the shadows for years, Whitaker will get to prove his coaching credentials after working under three different head coaches in the past six years at the Waratahs. It’s meant the jury is still out on whether the former Waratahs great can cut it in the coaching industry.
Former Australia and Waratahs star Chris Whitaker will take over as Junior Wallabies coach. (Photo by Jeremy Ng/Getty Images)
The Junior Wallabies remains a pathway into the professional game Rugby Australia has yet to get right.
Indeed, the Junior Wallabies have never won the under-20s World Cup. Jason Gilmore’s side were runners-up in 2019.
Several players from that side which fell just short in Argentina have gone on to play for the Wallabies like Angus Bell, Lachlan Lonergan, Josh Nasser, Nick Frost, Carlo Tizzano, Fraser McReight, Harry Wilson, Noah Lolesio, Mark Nawaqanitawase and Ben Donaldson. Meanwhile, Isaac Lucas, Semisi Tupou and Trevor Hosea were quickly snapped up by cashed-up Japanese outfits.
A cancelled fixture earlier this year controversially denied the Junior Wallabies a chance to make a late push for the knockout stages.
Chris Whitaker played 31 Tests but would have played many more if it wasn’t for George Gregan. (Photo: Stu Forster/Allsport)
Rugby Australia high performance director Peter Horne has been right across the appointment of Whitaker.
He will be hopeful that Whitaker can take the Junior Wallabies program forward knowing the added investment into the junior pathways in Australian rugby.
“It’s an interesting one, isn’t it? A lot of people are talking about, ‘is he a league kid or is he a rugby kid?’” Horne said in a recent interview following the Australian Schoolboys drought-breaking win over New Zealand across the ditch.
“We want to invest in those players that are committed to rugby and give them an opportunity. We [believe] if we’ve got good quality programs that are connected to a potential career in a professional environment that, and then the ones that we want to keep, we do.
“Our value proposition is around quality of program, opportunity of international touring. We tour at under 18 level, we’ve got competition Super Rugby under 16s, under 19s. The whole package that’s available to a player to choose rugby is quite good.
“And we’re active in terms of securing and retaining those players. We’ve made a big push and around now pivoting into under 14s and having a connection at U14s and 15s.
“Those players are in our system from 14 through to just over 20. We’ve been able to retain a significant proportion of those.
“There’s always players that leave. And yes, there are players that will go to the opposite code, but there’s also those that are in the opposite code that want to come to us.
“I don’t see that as an issue. There’s always been movement. The key thing is for us to continue to develop and provide high-quality programs at the state delivery level so that those kids know that they’ve got an opportunity to go into Super and hopefully on to higher honours.”
