In 2003, current Wallabies assistant Jonny Fisher was cheering home England's World Cup success against Australia. Now, the former Reds assistant is tasked with flipping the result
Fisher has followed coach Les Kiss across the world, with their relationship starting at London Irish in 2020.
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When the club folded, a brief chat with Kiss, along with his young family, convinced the former England Sevens representative to move halfway across the world to follow a dream, starting in Queensland before joining the national program.
"My immediate reaction to taking over this group is, it's been a privilege really," he told reporters.
"I grew up watching the ground [North Sydney Oval] that we trained on earlier for the vast majority of my life and to actually go there, coach on that grass today, look around and coach that team. It's pretty cool, I have to say.
"...I think probably the turning point for me as a young man when I fell in love with the game really was when I was with a group of friends watching that 2003 World Cup final so to be here with the prospect of next year, having fallen in love with the game at that point, it's surreal, but my eyes are wide open."
Fisher's focus will be on the attacking side of the game, getting the best out of the forwards.
It's an area the 37-year-old is very familiar with, the lock representing England at U19, Sevens and Saxons [now England A] level as well as close to 100 games in the Premiership.
Injuries derailed his career, which saw him fall in love with the coaching side of the game.
Now, Fisher is excited to continue working with some of the best attacking-orientated forwards in the world, including Reds duo Fraser McReight and Harry Wilson.
"My responsibility will be really to bring the very best out of the forwards from an attacking perspective to make sure that when we get those very brief and limited opportunities that you do get and only get in Test rugby that we take the space immediately," he explained.
"I think that some of the forwards, or the vast majority of the forwards we have, really have a very strong skill set there as attackers with how they carry their short passing game, so really I've got to help those guys do their very best job to create and keep the space for the speedsters.
"My responsibility to them and to the group and the team itself is to just bring the very best out of them. [Harry and Fraser] would tell you there's opportunities to improve their game that they're chasing every day so clearly they're top top level players and they're quite clear on where they need to improve to or where they want to improve."
Fisher is relishing a return to Twickenham in November, a ground all too familiar to the Richmond native, who'd pass the home of English Rugby on the daily commute.
He's had time to process and study the Wallabies during the July Nations Championship along with new assistant Scott McLeod and Kiss.
The immediate focus remains on sharpening the side's skills to find that consistent edge.
"I think the team's shown repeatedly over the course of the last few years that they have the capacity to win and win in a way which is consistent with Wallaby rugby," Fisher believes.
"I think one thing that 'Kissy' has been pretty clear with the group on is this is an evolution, not revolution, so I would like to think that you'll see consistency with aspects of the game that you've seen previously."
