AFTER months of speculation, it looks as though the Wallabies have finally landed their man and Dave Rennie will be heading south from Glasgow Warriors to take over from Michael Cheika as the Australia head coach.

Reports in Australia say Scott Johnson, the former director of rugby in Scotland who now occupies the same role in Australia, has been telling staff that Rennie is on his way.

There is, however, no suggestion that Rennie is intent on walking out on his contract with Glasgow, where he is in his third season in charge. He knew about the interest from Australia when he signed his current deal, which takes him to June next year, and has always promised he would see it out.

That is still compatible with taking the Wallabies job since they don’t now have another Test until July. He did the same thing when he joined Glasgow – signing when he was still under contract with the Chiefs in New Zealand, finishing his time there and moving to Scotland only once his commitments were complete.

The assurances being given in Sydney, however, do fire the starting gun in the race to take over at Glasgow – a competition that could be complicated by the fact that Jim Mallinder, who will take over as the new director of rugby at Murrayfield and should be a key man in the decision-making process, doesn’t start until the New Year. It means they could be well into the spring before a decision is reached.

If the SRU decide to keep the appointment internal, then Jason O’Halloran is the most senior of Rennie’s assistants at Glasgow Warriors and it would be surprising if he didn’t at least get an interview.

They might also consider moving one of Gregor Townsend’s assistants in the Scotland camp into the job as a way of shaking up the national set-up without been seen to scapegoat anybody. Matt Taylor, the defence coach, would be the obvious choice after more than seven years involvement at the highest level, though there are suggestions Australia are after him too.

More likely is that the SRU will again look overseas for a replacement, though with the World Cup still on and the Super Rugby season months away, it is impossible to know at the moment who might come on the market.

What could be trickier for Rennie is to keep the momentum going at Glasgow when everybody knows he is unlikely to stay. The first test of that comes this weekend when they travel to the Dragons aiming to build on their first win of the season last time out against Cardiff Blues.

It has been a sticky start to the season for Rennie’s men, with two early defeats before they found their winning touch, and they all know that without 17 World Cup players they are going to face a stern test at Rodney Parade where the home team are missing only four players in Japan.

It is a ground, however, where Glasgow have had success in recent years – the last defeat there was in 2014 – as Alex Allan, the prop with great memories of his own side-stepping try there three years ago, pointed out.

“It’s fun because you can feel the crowd there,” he said. “It’s a satisfying feeling because they are so loud at the start of the match and if you can get on top of them, you get a lot of energy from beating the crowd as well. We’re looking to do that and get on the scoreboard. Unfortunately last time it was a draw, but the crowd are very much a part of it. It is a good ground [and] good fun to play at.”