Dan McKellar says there’ll be no whinging from his side as they prepare for another curve ball in 2020 as the Brumbies coach re-affirmed his commitment to the club.
The Brumbies sit on top of the Australian conference after five rounds despite having to deal with a number of disruptions.
In preseason, the team relocated to Newcastle because of poor air quality, something that also threatened their opening season game.
Then two weeks later, the side battled a rare mumps outbreak, forcing players to be quarantined and sidelined.
This week, their match slated for Osaka has been moved to Wollongong and will be played two days earlier than initially scheduled due to the feares around the spread of coronavirus.
McKellar has often spoken about the perspective needed in these situations, when some Australians have lost houses and people have fallen ill around he world, and said no one in their environment had cause to complain.
“It’s been an interesting year but the players have been very good, the whole group have been,” he said
“There's been no whinging or complaining and we're not in a position to whinge or complain.
“There’s plenty of people who've had to experience a whole lot of things worse than what we're going through.
“We've just got to, instead of playing on a Sunday afternoon in Osaka, we're playing on Friday afternoon in Wollongong so we just get on with it.”
McKellar said there was a plus side to this latest change, with Wollongong certainly a much less taxing trip for the Brumbies.
“It limits our time in airports and on planes which is fatiguing and obviously impacts on your recovery but there's positives there but the Sunwolves are a tough team and we'll give them a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We're not reading too much into recent results and we're just focusing on making sure we have a really good preparation this week.”
McKellar has been in the spotlight in recent days as well after it was revealed he has been spoken to about potentially filling the Wallabies’ vacant forwards coaching role.
Speaking on radio on the weekend, McKellar said he was committed to the Brumbies and the 43-year-old reiterated that today, despite admitting it was flattering to be considered.
“Dave Rennie's looking for a forwards coach so we had a conversation in and around it and I'm really flattered and honoured ot be involved in those conversations,” he said.
“Players and coaches are all the same, you want to play at the highest level and coach at the highest level but I've been pretty clear about my commitments here and if the opportunity comes with the Wallabies down the track then it's something you always look at.”
The Brumbies take on the Sunwolves on Friday March 6 at WIN Stadium, Wollongong, kicking off at 2;45pm AEDT, LIVE on foxtel, Kayo Sports and via RUGBY.com.au RADIO.
