Former Wallabies captain turned Brumbies assistant coach Ben Mowen has put his hand up for the soon-to-be-vacant role with Joe Schmidt’s national side.
With Wallabies lineout coach Geoff Parling to take over from Michael Cheika at Leicester Tigers following the Lions series in August, an assistant coaching role on Schmidt’s team will open ahead of The Rugby Championship.
It’s one of a number of coaching roles that could open over the next 14 months, with the futures of Wallabies assistants Laurie Fisher (defence) and Mike Cron (scrum) not yet clear. The expectation is neither coach will go through until the 2027 World Cup on Australian shores.
It means Schmidt, Wallaby-coach-in-waiting Les Kiss and Rugby Australia high performance director Peter Horne will have to determine if they want a stop-gap assistant to jump on board for The Rugby Championship or someone to go through until the World Cup.
The timing isn’t ideal, with few readymade options on Australian soil.
Waratahs assistant and former Wallaby Dan Palmer is arguably the most credentialled, having been on Eddie Jones’ World Cup ticket in 2023 after proving himself with the Brumbies for years. But the former Test prop is coming to the end of his first year with the Waratahs.
Reds assistant Zane Hilton is likely Kiss’ preferred option, but the Brisbane product has aspirations of taking over the Super Rugby franchise.
Simon Cron, the nephew of Mike Cron, does plenty of the set-piece work at the Force along with Tom Donnelly, but both are cemented with the Perth-based franchise. Could that change?
Forwards coach Geoff Parling is leaving the Wallabies following the British and Irish Lions series. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)
There are also very few Australian forwards coaches based overseas, although World Cup winners Matt Cockbain and Toutai Kefu are on the hunt for new roles.
Mowen, meanwhile, is in his second season with the Brumbies and helps run the lineout as well as being in charge of the side’s defence.
Asked whether he would put his hand up to take over from Parling, Mowen said it was a no-brainer for an Australian to be interested in joining the Wallabies set up, especially on the eve of a World Cup.
“Yeah, definitely,” Mowen told The Roar Rugby podcast.
“I think all of us working or playing in Australia have the dream of being in that room. That’s where you want to be and, certainly, I would want to be in that dressing room at some stage. Should that opportunity pop up at this time and I’m considered a chance, yeah, I definitely would.
“It’s such a privilege to be a coach, period, let alone if you get the opportunity to then coach Super Rugby or coach in that [Wallabies] environment, and then you look at the wealth of knowledge that’s in that room. You get better through your experiences, your exposures. So to have access to that type of group (would be great).”
Brumbies assistant coach Ben Mowen says he’s open to the soon-to-be-vacant Wallabies assistant coaching role. Photo: Brumbies Media
Mowen said all the current crop of Super Rugby coaches were benefiting from the exposure they had with Schmidt’s Wallabies coaching team.
“All those coaches have been really giving of their time,” Mowen said.
“Conno comes down and spends a week with the Brumbies, as he does with all the Super sides, and just the absolute pearls of wisdom you get through that week, through small conversations, little focus points, simplifying, it just makes you a better coach through a few conversations over a coffee.
“So when you’re talking about an opportunity to coach in that group and have more exposure, it’s just an easy decision.”
Mowen’s rise as a coach has been rapid, with the former Wallabies skipper taking over Easts in Brisbane before quickly joining Stephen Larkham’s coaching team as Laurie Fisher’s replacement.
The former back-rower followed in the footsteps of several international coaches, including Cheika, Eddie Jones and All Blacks boss Scott Robertson, by cutting his team in club rugby.
“I think club rugby set me up really well to be highly adaptable,” he said.
“Obviously when you’re doing a head coaching role at club rugby, you’re the recruiter, the team manager, the game day manager, you’re the liaison officer for guys who come from town and need a hand, you’re helping them get into units, you’re filling out rental applications, you’re really doing everything and then you’re trying to deliver a rugby program on the back of it.
“So moving into a Super Rugby program, it allows you to narrow your focus and just focus on your contribution.
“Obviously, it was always going to be a big challenge last year for the playing group with myself arriving where you’ve had such continuity with Laurie Fisher for so long on his defensive systems and principles, and certainly a large portion of what I delivered to the group was based on those principles because like half of Australia, we learnt so many great traits through Laurie. So you’re not trying to reinvent those things but you are adapting and putting your own spin on them.”
Brumbies forwards coaches Ben Mowen (R) and John Ulugia joined the franchise ahead of the 2024 season.
Former Wallaby Matt To’omua said he wasn’t surprised his former teammate had taken to coaching like a duck to water because his attention to detail was always second to none and, perhaps even more crucially, he was never afraid to have a tough conversation.
“His attention to detail is remarkable,” Roar Rugby podcast co-host To’omua said.
“He was always in charge of the line-outs. Jake [White] used to just make him in charge of that stuff, and he’d spend hours and hours and hours on tape, like old school.
“But the thing about Benny is he’s willing to say the unpopular thing, and he’s willing to be maybe disliked for something if it suits the vision. And for past players, that’s usually the issue. Usually, past players who go into coaching, they’re kind of pals with the other players, and they don’t really want to have those hard conversations, but Benny was doing that when he was playing.
“He would happily confront you as a player. He used to challenge me a lot as a young guy. He used to tell me a lot, ‘You’re not young, stop using this as an excuse.’ He would have these awkward conversations with you, which weren’t friendly, but they were for the betterment of the team.”
Ben Mowen was never afraid of the tough conversations, according to Matt To’omua. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Mowen, who made his Test debut against the Lions before later leaving Australian rugby that same year, encouraged Wallabies selectors to pick the best team available regardless of whether some players had already signed with overseas clubs.
“I’d definitely lean on the side of we’ve got to get the strongest team on the park,” he said.
“This is going to be a tough series, but we have the potential to really perform well. So getting the best players in the park is going to be the best way to ensure that happens.
“I’d be rewarding guys that have contributed to Australian rugby this year. I’d see it more in that circumstance where they’ve played Super Rugby this year, the series lands right at the back end of Super Rugby. I’d be using that momentum.
“I think the other part of this too is that a lot of the guys we’re talking about are of the age profile where they will potentially be back and so what a great carrot to give them to experience what a Lions series and then say ‘we’d love to have you back around the home World Cup.’ You can only imagine what that’s going to be like. It’ll be a Lions series again. So I would definitely be involved in them.
“I think a lot of those guys fall in that same category as Tom [Hooper] where they’ve performed outstanding. So they’re obviously guys that can deal with a lot of pressure, which is going to be around the Lions. They’re guys that can deal with expectation and they’ve been big contributors for their Super Rugby sides, so we need those guys in the Wallabies.”
Mowen, who chose to leave Australian rugby shortly after debuting for the Wallabies and quickly emerging as the nation’s captain, said his decision to leave the Brumbies in 2014 wasn’t done so lightly.
“As tough it was (to leave), it became very simple,” he said.
“I was a Brisbane boy growing up. I played at the Reds and when I joined the Reds, I thought this is me. I’m going to be here for 10 years. I’ll play 100 games and I really believed in that dream. But I had so many injuries back to back.
“I actually had a conversation where I was coming off contract and Phil Mooney sat me down. He said, ‘Mate, sorry, there’s just isn’t a contract for you.’
“Then I moved to Sydney and played club rugby and picked up a gig with the Waratahs and then played there for four years and was starting to play some really good footy and then got sat down by a coach again and said, ‘Yeah, look, unfortunately, there’s no spot for you next year and you have to find another job.’
“So there was multiple times in my career where I had dealt with that challenge and then had to have some pretty tough conversations off the back of it. So I know how quickly that stuff can turn.
“I was 29 at that stage where I was making this decision and it was the start of that Super Rugby season in 2013 where I thought, look, the Lions are on, I’m going to give this like a real good shake, but I had played for eight years at that stage in Australia and I’d been in the squad but not played for Australia and my mind was starting to think about, well, I know how quickly this stuff can change and a big box we wanted to tick as a family was to live overseas and the opportunity just came up at that time and I thought this is sliding doors.
“I’ve been on the other side of the sliding doors too many times and when you’ve got mortgages and stuff like that, it’s a pretty tough time. So I made the decision that I thought this is the best thing that’s in front of me right now and not easy, but then in hindsight it was very easy and I’ve never thought that that was a decision I’d take back or change. I think you are the sum of your experiences and my experiences led me to that decision because I’d been on the other side of it.”
Christy Doranhttps://www.theroar.com.au/2025/05/22/willing-to-say-the-unpopular-thing-mowen-puts-up-hand-for-vacant-wallabies-role-and-why-hes-born-to-coach/‘Willing to say the unpopular thing’: Mowen puts up hand for vacant Wallabies role – and why he’s ‘born to coach’
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