McLennan was asked if he could guarantee Rennie would be in charge of the Wallabies at the game’s centrepiece event in France next year,even if results didn’t go Australia’s way for the remainder of 2022.

“Yes,absolutely,” McLennan said. “Dave’s done a great job. There’s been real progress that has been made. He’s as frustrated as anyone.

“The world rankings ... you can use them as a data point but everyone in world rugby could see that the Wallabies have come back and they’re on the move and heading in the right direction. I take a lot of heart from that.”

In 2020,McLennan famously said that even before Rennie had coached Australia,he was open to extending his contract beyond 2023.

The Wallabies face New Zealand next week in a second Bledisloe fixture before a five-Test tour to Europe in October and November. Australia have matches against Scotland,France,Italy,Ireland and Wales to round out 2022.

Meanwhile,McLennan has doubled down on his threat to walk away from Super Rugby Trans-Tasman in 2024.

RA and New Zealand Rugby are locked in negotiations around what the competition will look like in the future. McLennan has already gone on the record to say Australia wants a greater slice of broadcast revenue.

“We’re still talking about Super Rugby Trans Tasman. We’re not there,” McLennan said. “It’s grinding forward I would say. Hopefully,it’ll resolve itself,or we’ll go domestic.”

McLennan assured he wasn’t bluffing.

“We wouldn’t say it if we weren’t real,” McLennan said. “We’ve said publicly that the high-performance outcomes would probably be better with New Zealand in the mix but we’re not going to play second-fiddle. Time will tell if we’re bluffing. They know we’re serious.

“We’ve got the backing of our member unions,the Super Rugby club chairs and[host broadcaster] Channel Nine to go domestic. We haven’t won a Bledisloe in 20 years. Who’s to say that a domestic competition wouldn’t deliver more money to Rugby Australia and possibly with more teams and more players,better high-performance outcomes? We’ll see.”

Watch every match ofThe Rugby Championship on the Home of Rugby,Stan Sport.All matches streaming ad-free,live and on demand on Stan Sport.