Former All Blacks assistant coach Mike Cron’s interview with 1News over his new role with the Wallabies has been gatecrashed by head coach and new boss Joe Schmidt.
In a Zoom call with 1News sports reporter Zion Dayal, Cron, in Melbourne, was asked how he felt he could help Australia.
Cron, who enjoyed a long and fruitful career with the All Blacks as a scrum coach, replied: “Obviously you feel sorry for Dave Rennie, I thought he did a really good job.”
Schmidt, the Kiwi former Ireland head coach who assisted the All Blacks under previous head coach Ian Foster, then walked into the room.
Dayal asked him: “Good to have this guy on board?”
Schmidt replied, tongue in cheek: “Yeah, we had to get the Zimmer frame out for him but he’s okay.”
Cron, 69, will be Schmidt’s forwards coach and had the potential to form a potent partnership with his fellow New Zealander as they attempt to piece together the Wallabies after the disaster of last year’s World Cup.
Cron said: “Australia are ranked 10th in the world and have gone into a situation where they rather wouldn't be. We certainly hope to turn that around.”
As Schmidt attempted to leave the room, Dayal asked: “Was it an easy phone call to make for you?”
He replied: “Yeah, yeah. I said ‘do you want to give us a hand?’. ‘Yes, when’ [was the reply].”
The All Blacks and Wallabies will meet in the Bledisloe Cup twice this year; the first fixture is scheduled for Sydney on September 21.
Cron has coached against the All Blacks before – at the 2003 World Cup in Australia when he was assisting the now Sir Steve Hansen at Wales.
“That was the one and only occasion,” Cron said. “It’s unusual, it really is, the feeling. But you work hard for your own team.
“In rugby quite often It’s through contacts that you get your next gig. I don’t have a CV and I’ve never done a job interview. You get rung up by someone, ‘can you give us a hand, I’m in the sh*t’ or whatever and you either say yes or no, and more often than not I say yes. And that’s happened all through my career.”
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