NSW Waratahs coach Dan McKellar is refusing to be distracted again by Wallabies rumours as he prepares for Friday's opener against the Highlanders in Sydney.
McKellar's name was again mentioned for the Wallabies job after Joe Schmidt announced that he would leave after the Rugby Championship.
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It's over 12 months since the former Brumbies boss and Schmidt were considered the key candidates to replace Eddie Jones in 2023 when McKellar was at Leicester.
However, he admits the noise and headlines were a 'distraction' as the Tigers' season slumped, leading to his return to Australia.
"I was in Leicester and I'd go to every press conference and I'd get asked about the Wallabies job and it was a distraction. I can assure you I'm not going to be distracted a second time around," he said to the media.
"I don't think I spent a whole lot of time focusing on it over there either, but it was a distraction. You just can't in this high-performance environment, allow yourself to be distracted and as I said, I'm not going to allow that to occur again."
McKellar conceded he was disappointed to hear Schmidt was moving on, having seen the work he'd done in turning around the Wallabies in 2024.
"There was no reaction from me besides disappointment, to be honest, because he's a good man," McKellar said on his reaction to the news.
"I've had quite a lot of dealings with him, a lot of it was over the phone obviously for 12 months...he's got his family situation that he's spoken about and I fully respect and understand that.
"Someone's going to get an opportunity to lead Australia to the World Cup in 2027. I'm sure they'll embrace that and love that."
McKellar's single-minded focus remains on turning around the Waratahs, knowing early wins are crucial with four of their first five games at home.
"What wins games in round one doesn't necessarily win you a game in round 10," he added.
"We'll go out there with the mindset and the intent to play some rugby and we'll have a really clear plan around how we're going to go about that and how we get the best opportunity to do that.
"It was a tough year for them last year and I've got a whole lot of respect for 'DC' (Darren Coleman) and the coaching staff...All I'm here to do with my coaching group and the players is to put them in a position every day to get better and if we just focus on that from one day to the next, ideally we'll get ourselves off the bottom of the ladder.
"That's the goal and we've got four of our first five at home to build some momentum and see how we go from there."
