Rugby-McKenzie walks on Wallabies after Beale row indignities

By Nick Mulvenney SYDNEY, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Ewen McKenzie always places great stock in the character of the players he works with and ultimately it seems that having his own integrity so publicly questioned caused him to walk away from a job he coveted for so long. The 49-year-old said the media would have to wait until he published his memoirs to know the real story behind his shock departure as Australia's rugby coach, but there is no doubt the saga surrounding Kurtley Beale played a central role. What was not surprising was that he went out on his own terms, tendering his resignation in the morning before the Wallabies came so close to beating New Zealand and sticking to his guns when Australian rugby chief Bill Pulver tried to change his mind. The victim of what Pulver characterised as a media "character assassination", McKenzie departed after 15 months in the job with 11 wins, one draw and 10 defeats in his 22 tests in charge. Walking away clearly hurt, and as he resigned he made mention of his pride in a contribution to Australian rugby going back more than two decades to when he was a 51-cap prop forward helping his country win the World Cup for the first time. McKenzie clearly felt it was an undeserved indignity having to spend a news conference fielding questions about rumours he had been in an extra-marital relationship with team official Di Patston, as happened eight days before he quit. In addition to that indignity, the clear implication at the heart of the innuendo was that McKenzie had put his own interests ahead of those of the squad in offering his support to Patston, who he brought with him from the Queensland Reds. Patston, who resigned last weekend because of stress, was the subject of "deeply offensive" texts utility back Beale is alleged to have sent to team mates. To McKenzie, this was a case of workplace misconduct against the only female employee in the squad environment and it must have been with some consternation that he observed captain Michael Hooper and other senior players publicly backing Beale. Pulver said on Sunday that in addition to what he clearly thought was a grubby media campaign, McKenzie's belief that he had lost the dressing room was a major cause of his departure -- even if he thought the coach was wrong. Hooper's prevarication when asked to clearly back the coach individually, even after he had resigned on Sunday, indicates that McKenzie's opinion was probably closer to the mark. "I made the statement on Friday it had been a tough week but we played for everyone in this group and that's players, that's staff, that's fans back home," he told reporters in Brisbane. "That's who you're trying to represent and Ewen's no exception to that." The irony is that on Saturday, the Wallabies got closest to the sort of performance against one of the southern hemisphere superpowers that McKenzie thought his side had been building towards in his time charge. Playing in the dry conditions they required for the first time in their last four tests on home soil, they kept ball in hand and ran the best side in the world ragged for most of the night, only falling short in the final seconds when Malakai Fekitoa scored a converted try. (Editing by Peter Rutherford)