 In late 2007 David applied for the role of Australian Head Coach.It was well known throughout this time that Crusaders coach Robbie Deans was the favourite of ARU CEO John O'Neill; however Deans made a decision to apply for the All Blacks coaching role instead.Dean's decision to apply for the All Blacks made David the front runner for the Wallabies post, but the NZRU controversially decided to keep incumbent coach Graham Henry despite the All Blacks worst ever performance at a world cup which led to Deans successfully applying for the Wallabies job.