New Wallabies rugby coach Dave Rennie has ended his tenure in Glasgow and is headed home to New Zealand before crossing the Tasman to begin Australia's rugby rebuild.
He will be doing it without the woman who signed him for the role, Raelene Castle, who stepped down last month after years of infighting in Australian rugby.
Rennie, 56, the two-time Super Rugby winning coach with the Chiefs, regretted they wouldn't be involved in working together to recover the Australian game.
He told Scotland Rugby's Scrum magazine, "I respect her. [She's] A good lady who cares about her people, and if you talk to her staff, they would rave about her. So, it was disappointing that people had a crack at her in the media who have no idea what is going on.
"For two years she had media having a crack at her and various other high-profile people having a crack at her – just bullying her, really – but she was really strong, she kept fighting and refused to take a backward step, so I respected that steel she had.
"She went out with a massive bit of dignity. Even back when I was first being signed, she never had a negative word to say about Michael Cheika, even though there were lots of reports about their relationship, so I just think she is a real classy woman.
"I would love to have worked with her but it is not going to happen now," he said.
Rennie said he had been spending time with the chief executive Rob Clarke and chairman of the board Hamish McLennan, who had been recently appointed.
Their conversations had been 'proactive', Rennie said.
"I reckon they will make some change, but all that stuff we are trying to deal with in-house rather than talking about issues in the press," he said.
Rennie will spend some time in New Zealand before taking up his appointment in Australia later in the month.
Offering some departing views on the state of Scottish rugby, he said Scotland needed to keep working hard to both identify, and develop, players. He would like to see the introduction of a PRO14 A league to help younger players prepare, with game-time, for the tougher level of rugby ahead of them.
"I honestly believe that there are some really good players over here, some really good kids coming through, and I think Edinburgh and Glasgow are preparing these guys pretty well for the step up to international footy," he said.
Rennie was disappointed the coronavirus pandemic cast its influence over the end of his tenure.
He said the loss of last season's PRO14 final to Leinster had been the biggest disappointment of his three years with the side.
"We'd played such good footy for a couple of months and were really on top of our game, so I'm proud of how we finished that year – we were playing under pressure each week to try and stay ahead of Munster, and we were pretty emphatic in a number of those victories.
"I'm incredibly proud of that, and the effort that went in from the full squad – that's as good as I've seen – but it was disappointing not to get it right on the day and not to come away with any silverware," he said.