Wallaby coach McKenzie quashes affair rumour

Quade Cooper's potential recall for the final Bledisloe Cup test could not deflect attention from his mentor today, as an increasingly agitated Ewen McKenzie faced a wide-ranging and unprecedented inquisition centred on his personal life.

Usually Cooper's involvement in any team to face the All Blacks is automatically a talking point but McKenzie and Kurtley Beale were the focal points of a squad naming that barely touched on next Saturday's test at Suncorp Stadium.

During 23 captivating minutes inside ARU headquarters, McKenzie was forced to strenuously denied he was romantically involved with business manager Di Patston - the staff member who has been on stress leave since a mid-flight altercation with Beale as the team flew from South Africa to Argentina via Brazil on September 28.

Senior players successfully lobbied to keep the utility back on tour though he was stood down yesterday pending a code of conduct tribunal after ARU chief executive Bill Pulver said Beale allegedly distributed "inappropriate and deeply offensive text messages and images to a number of people in June, referencing an ARU staff member".

Patston, who has a working history with McKenzie dating back to his time as coach of the Queensland Reds, is believed to be the staff member involved.

The scope of McKenzie's relationship with Patston has been subject to speculation since he escorted her to the airport in Buenos Aires instead of overseeing a training session ahead of the Wallabies' 21-17 Rugby Championship defeat to the Pumas last weekend.

Asked if he was intimate with Patston, McKenzie replied: "No. I've got a professional relationship with her as I have with all the other people in my staff. Simple as that.

"There's some sort of campaign out there to impugn that that's the situation. I refute that.

"All I can say is it's false and deny it. That's all I can do and you guys will write whatever."

That denial offered no respite for McKenzie who then had to defend his decision to accompany Patston to her flight back to Sydney.

"None of you guys were there to actually understand the context," he said.

"You've got a very stressed person so it's my job to consider the human welfare aspect of it. I don't know why everyone is fixated on that. I have three assistant (coaches) who are all very capable."

He also disagreed that Patston's appointment shortly after he succeeded Robbie Deans in July last year had alienated the squad.

"I don't believe her appointment has caused angst. She came here with a specific role to take the team to a new level.

"I came here at short notice to try and improve things and my belief is to get the best out of a team you actually have to make progress on every front.

"She has extraordinary skills, she's come in and made a massive difference in terms of the business side of it, and that was her role."

Yet despite that endorsement, McKenzie still had to defend Patston's professional credentials after the qualifications listed on her online profiles were queried.

"I don't employ off LinkedIn. I go off the qualifications they have got and present, as simple as that," he added.

"She has a very strong background, very strongly qualified in lots of areas around psychology and human behaviour.

"So she is more than qualified to do the job, I can assure you. There is actually no qualifications to do the job."

McKenzie added the leadership group's demand that Beale be allowed to stay on tour did not indicate a rift between players and management.

"I know everyone's got an opinion but I know the playing group," he said, adding the 32-man squad, which includes four debutants, can air any grievances when the team assembles in Brisbane on Sunday.

And asked if his position was untenable considering Patston's role has created multiple controversies, McKenzie offered a curt: "No. I don't hide form the fact that I like to run the show so I don't make any apologies for trying to assemble people around me to get the job done."

After 15 gruelling minutes, McKenzie finally grumbled: "No one's asked me about the team yet."

Cooper, it seems, could make the bench with Beale and Matt Toomua (concussion) unavailable. Uncapped wing Henry Speight (hamstring) is included but won't play; Zimbabawe-born midfielder Kyle Godwin, hooker Tetera Faulkner and utility back Tom English are the other newcomers.