ACT Brumbies assistant coach Rod Seib emerges as potential heir apparent as Solomone Kata re-signs for Super Rugby

Seib says the thought of throwing his name into the mix has piqued his interest as the Brumbies kickstart a search to replace McKellar at the end of the 2022 season.

The next Super Rugby season marks McKellar's Brumbies swansong before he permanently links with the Wallabies coaching staff on the road to the 2023 World Cup.

The Brumbies will cast a worldwide net to find their man and Seib could emerge as a strong candidate having joined the club as an attack coach late last year.

"It's a fantastic organisation to work at so there will be plenty of fine candidates for the position. It's a very appealing position," Seib said.

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"In saying that, that's a year away so our focus is on this year. Whilst it may be a little bit of a distraction for the next couple of months, hopefully everything gets sorted out so we can really focus on 2022.

"I know Dan is looking forward to a big year and he deserves to have a fantastic last year at the club for the amount of work he has put into the organisation. We're really looking forward to sending him out on a high."

McKellar is in Perth with the Wallabies ahead of next week's final Bledisloe Cup clash, leaving Seib and Laurie Fisher to pull the strings in Canberra.

A huge chunk of the Brumbies squad also feature in the Wallabies side, with those left behind now training in isolation after Canberra went into lockdown last week.

The lockdown has been extended until at least September 2, meaning training sessions designed to make players "bigger, faster and stronger" are being done remotely.

Initial plans have those available returning to Brumbies headquarters on September 20 for a three-week block of training, before a period of annual leave and a return for the official start of pre-season training in November.

It's all with an eye on a Super Rugby Trans-Tasman competition, with Rugby Australia and their New Zealand counterparts still locking in the season structure. Seib believes "if we stayed in the AU bubble for too long it would probably stagnate the competition".

Two Brumbies outside the Wallabies squad are already getting a rehearsal against their Kiwi rivals, with Tom Ross [Southland] and Solomone Kata [Auckland] playing in New Zealand's national provincial competition.

Kata has re-signed with the Brumbies for the 2022 season, and Seib hopes to see the damaging winger get a shot in the centres for Auckland to get an idea of what Kata is capable of.

"It's a good problem to have. When you watch Sol train, from the pre-season I saw him in last year, he is just a Rolls Royce," Seib said.

"He is so explosive, the agility, power and strength he brings to your team is fantastic. We've got a lot of Wallabies in that back line there so it's great for the mix.

"The reality is, you need blokes to share the load through the season. If you rely on that core group to carry you throughout the whole year, you can tend to find you get in a little bit of a hole at times.

"To have the versatility and ability to bring blokes in and out of the side to allow someone to freshen up is great. I know Sol, at full fitness, he would be looking at a starting position and rightfully so.

"We don't really know [what his best position is] to be honest. Obviously we know what he can do on the wing but I think he can also fill a role in the centres as well. If he can have that little bit of exposure there in NPC as well, maybe we'll learn a little bit more about him.

"At this stage he is someone who features as part of our back line, but just where that actually ends up being, we'll wait and see."

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