Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. When Rugby Australia was trying to woo Eddie Jones back to the Wallabies, former chairman Hamish McLennan hosted a dinner for the veteran coach at his $17 million home in Lavender Bay. Over a meal of Portuguese chicken prepared by his wife, Lucinda, McLennan sold his vision for the future of the Wallabies – and the RA boss got his man.
Forer Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan. Credit: Edwina Pickles Some seven months later, while Jones was still enjoying the honeymoon period of his second coming at the Wallabies, McLennan doubled down on what he believed was a winning recipe. McLennan was deep into covert discussions with Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii’s agent, Isaac Moses, to lure his client from the NRL back to rugby union, but the teenage superstar’s family were reluctant to go any further without understanding the values of the people they were about to do business with.
Suaalii’s parents wanted to make sure he was going to be looked after – beyond the pay cheque. So the ambitious McLennan invited the then 19-year-old prodigy and his father Chris and mother Salina over for some of Lucinda’s Portuguese chicken together with the agent who would later strike one of the most significant deals in Australian sporting history. Jones was there, too, of course – sitting next to Suaalii at the table as he listened to the teenager talk with a mix of confidence and humility about making.