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Coach McKellar leaves Waratahs after second poor season

Iain Payten - 4 min read

Waratahs head coach Dan McKellar will part ways with the NSW franchise with a year left on his contract after a second poor season in charge prompted drastic change at the Rugby Australia-owned outfit.

McKellar was forced to front the Waratahs board last week to explain the just-completed Super Rugby Pacific season, where the NSW side again failed to qualify for the six-team playoffs.

The Waratahs won just five of 14 matches, one fewer than in McKellar’s first season in 2025. McKellar, a former Brumbies head coach and Wallabies assistant coach, arrived at the Waratahs at the end of 2024 amid hope he could turn the perennially underperforming franchise around. NSW finished with the wooden spoon in 2024.

But despite a star-studded roster and some strong wins, two mostly disappointing seasons unfolded, and McKellar’s ongoing future at the club came under scrutiny in recent weeks.

Against a backdrop of mixed player feedback about the McKellar regime, the Waratahs and Rugby Australia last week conducted a review of the season and his future at the club.

McKellar, who said after the Waratahs’ last-round defeat to the Force last month that he planned to still be at the franchise in 2027, made the decision to exit the Tahs over the weekend.

McKellar’s exit comes after NSW attack coach Mike Catt also left the franchise by mutual agreement earlier in the month, and also with a year left on his contract.

It is unclear who could take over as head coach of the Waratahs in 2027, with young assistant coaches Locky McCaffrey and Dan Palmer not likely to be considered successors. McCaffrey is coaching the Waratahs in the Super Rugby AU competition in September, and will likely act as interim head coach.

Former Wallabies coach Stephen Hoiles, who now coaches California Legion in Major League Rugby, has been linked with the Tahs role in the past, but it would be his first Super Rugby job.

Michael Cheika, who is on a one-year contract with the NRL’s Sydney Roosters, could emerge as a potential dark horse. The former Wallabies coach took the Waratahs to their first – and only – Super Rugby title in 2014.

As recently as four weeks ago, McKellar was bullish about continuing with the Waratahs in 2027 and confident they would turn the corner.

“I’m contracted for next year, and I certainly don’t worry about that sort of stuff,” McKellar told media in Perth after the last-round loss to the Force.

“You’ve just got to roll with the punches. Times like this make the good times feel even better, and they’ll come.

“We’ve got a group here that are buying into what we want to do. Nothing changes from my end

“I’m in this for the long haul, and we’ll enjoy a beer together and reflect on the season, and then I’ll quickly get to work around turning things around for ’27.”

Christy Doran - 3 min read

Dan McKellar faces nervous wait on future at Waratahs

As the Waratahs edge closer to bringing back a World Cup five-eighth, Dan McKellar presented to the board in a bid to keep his position.

As the Waratahs move closer to locking down veteran playmaker Bernard Foley for next season, embattled coach Dan McKellar will have a nervy wait over the weekend after presenting to the NSW board on Friday in a bid to save his job.

After a dismal 5-9 win record in 2026 that saw the Waratahs finish eighth on the 11-team Super Rugby standings, The Australian can reveal McKellar fronted the board via telecast on Friday morning.

Rugby Australia director of high performance Peter Horne also sat in on the meeting.

It’s understood that no decision was made on McKellar’s future, but sources told The Australian that the coach’s future was not guaranteed.

Ultimately, that decision will be made by Horne and the Rugby Australia leadership team after the governing body took control of the NSW Rugby.

The Waratahs and RA chose not to comment when contacted on Friday afternoon.

While few thought McKellar was under genuine pressure to retain his position as recently as a fortnight ago, it’s understood that a less-than-desirable review into the season saw the wind change and the experienced coach’s ­future cast into doubt.

If the Waratahs were to move McKellar on, he would be the latest in a growing list thrown to the scrap heap since Daryl Gibson moved after the 2019 season.

Indeed, since Gibson walked out with a year left on his contract, Rob Penney, co-coaches Chris Whitaker and Jason Gilmore, and Darren Coleman have all coached the Waratahs.

McKellar, who led the Brumbies to the Super Rugby semi-­finals either side of the Covid-affected years before joining Dave Rennie’s Wallabies coaching team in 2021, took over ahead of the 2025 season. It came after Coleman was let go following his third year in charge, where the Waratahs went from scraping into the ­finals to finishing last.

Since then, though, the results haven’t dramatically improved despite encouraging starts to the past two seasons.

Considered a no-frills coach, who is strong on discipline and hard work, McKellar has sought to change the culture of the franchise after a miserable decade since Michael Cheika led the Waratahs to their maiden Super Rugby title in 2014.

While Cheika’s Waratahs made the semi-finals in 2015, the only other time they made the last four since then was in 2018 under Gibson’s watch.

One of the factors that could save McKellar is the fact that there are few ready-made Australian candidates to replace him. Others, including Rod Seib, are contracted to Leicester Tigers.

The Waratahs, too, need to find an attack coach to join McKellar’s team, after Mike Catt – the vastly experienced and internationally proven assistant – was cut earlier this month. But that task hasn’t been made easier by the fact McKellar’s future is clouded, and his contract is only in place until the end of the 2027 season.

It’s believed former Wallabies outside backs Chris Latham, who recently led Chicago to the Major League Rugby title after an undefeated season, Mark Gerrard and Force attack coach James Stannard have applied for the role.

Meanwhile, the Waratahs are moving closer to luring Foley home. The 36-year-old signed off on a memorable career in Japan by leading Kubota Speers to the League One final. It was the Spears’ third final in four years, including a title victory in 2023.

The 76-Test veteran could even shape as an insurance plan for incoming Wallabies coach Les Kiss for next year’s World Cup, especially given the relatively inexperienced options in the No.10 jersey still in Australian rugby.

Foley led the Wallabies to the World Cup final in 2015 and also featured in the 2019 campaign, before controversially missing selection under Eddie Jones in 2023.

Former Wallabies captain Michael Hooper said he would be in “favour” of Foley’s return.

“Rewind 12 months ago, I think he should have been a part of the Lions squad,” Hooper said.

“He’s got a lot of experience. He knows how to manage a team.”

Wallabies great Matt Giteau, who played in two World Cup ­finals, said Foley would bring a wealth of experience and composure to a crop of young playmakers.

“Experience adds for a lot,” ­Giteau said. “It’s not even what he can add necessarily (on) game day, but it’s throughout the week. You can learn so much.

“He’d add a lot of composure to the group. You’ve been in all sorts of different situations. I think even if you go behind in a game, who do the younger kids look to? They’re going to look to the leaders to give them direction.

“They just need a picture, because when you start a game, you’re just thinking about the best-case scenario. We want to go here, score here, do this. When things aren’t going well, that’s when your leaders can stand up. They give you direction.”