Top 14

Clermont Auvergne 'shortlist' Robbie Deans

ESPN Staff

Robbie Deans is reportedly in line to replace Vern Cotter © Getty Images Enlarge

Axed Australia coach Robbie Deans is reported to have been shortlisted by French Top 14 club Clermont Auvergne to replace former Crusaders assistant Vern Cotter.

Cotter will leave the 2010 Top 14 champions and 2011 Heineken Cup runners-up to coach Scotland, and The Australian reports that a source in France says the club wishes to talk to his fellow New Zealander.

Deans coached the Wallabies for five-and-a-half years, becoming the most capped coach of the Australian Test team as he guided the team to their first Tri Nations title in 10 years, in 2011, but he failed to win the Rugby World Cup or the Bledisloe Cup and the Australian Rugby Union released him from his contract six months early after losing the series against the British & Irish Lions.

Deans spent a season as a player with French club Grenoble, after the All Blacks' tour of Europe in 1983, and he and his wife, Penny, are both fluent French speakers.

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