He was to be the saviour of the Wallabies.

Ewen McKenzie, the hard-nosed former Test front-rower with a granite-like exterior, liked referring to himself as a fixer of broken things.

But, after a turbulent 15-months at his coveted post, McKenzie finishes as a broken man.

A proud 51-Test Wallaby who lived for coaching, his weekend resignation was as surprising as the astonishing events that led to it.

In a sad end for a man that Australian Rugby Union boss Bill Pulver described as good and noble, McKenzie felt he couldn’t regain the respect he lost in the dressing room from rumours, questions and reports of his close relationship with former staffer Di Patston.

Just 11 months away from the 2015 World Cup in England, McKenzie believed the team would be better served with a new guide after losing their last three matches.

He departs, “stage left” in his words, with a 50 per cent success rate with 11 wins, one draw and 10 losses in his 22 Tests in charge.

His reign was so bright just two months ago, when the Wallabies botched a prime chance to sink the All Blacks at a rain-sodden ANZ Stadium, settling for a 12-all stalemate to continue an eight-match unbeaten streak.

However, it all went south after McKenzie, who always preferred to talk up his teams rather than play the underdog card, called on the world champion New Zealanders to bring their A-game to the return match in Auckland seven days later.

The result: A 51-20 Eden Park massacre.

But, the in-house problems which ultimately led to the disenchantment from some key troops was sewn by a hard-line stance taken on team culture last November.

McKenzie’s gutsy decision to stand down six Test players – including popular senior figures Adam Ashley-Cooper, Tatafu Polota-Nau and Benn Robinson – and reprimand nine others, for a big night out in Dublin four days before a convincing win over Ireland was widely applauded for raising slipping standards in a team that had been beset by mediocrity.

At the time, the coach, respected as one of the best props in Wallabies history, told AAP: “you only have one crack at this job, and you have to do what you believe will get you success”.

He also chided disgruntled players by growling it wasn’t a “Contiki tour”.

It appeared to work at the time, as Australia produced some of the most entertaining and clinical rugby of recent seasons against Ireland and Wales.

But the frustrations of some players simmered under the surface.

When they and others suspected an improper relationship with Wallabies business manager Di Patston, who started as McKenzie’s personal assistant at the Queensland Reds in 2012, it created extra tension within a squad which also questioned her exact role.

There were also concerns the coach, who first came to prominence with NSW by guiding the Waratahs to the 2005 and 2008 Super Rugby finals, placed too much emphasis on cutting costs for the cash-strapped ARU than coaching the team.

A fine man-manager and motivator with the Reds, taking them from the Super Rugby cellar in 2009 to 2011 champions, it’s understood McKenzie’s communication with some players became non-existent in the last month of his tenure.

Questions about his relationship with Patston, on top of her resignation following revelations that Kurtley Beale had distributed lewd and offensive images related to the 38-year-old, hurt McKenzie deeply.

In the end, he lost his appetite for the fight.

Pulver, who attempted to talk him out of his resignation, initially slammed sections of the media for an “extraordinary character assassination” before tempering his comments on Sunday.

“When I was talking to Ewen yesterday, frankly I was saying `Ewen I think this is the wrong decision to resign gnaw. He was simply at the point that he had had enough.

“I hadn’t seen any evidence of the fact that the players had lost confidence in Ewen. But in the environment he was in he was feeling it was just too difficult to come back where he sat at that point.

“In many ways he’s an extremely noble person and I think a part of him said `well, the best thing for Australian rugby is if I step aside’.”

All McKenzie would say after dropping his bombshell following Saturday night’s heart-breaking 29-28 loss to the All Blacks at Suncorp Stadium was that he was “unhappy with a bunch of things”.

“So the easiest thing to do is exit stage left and I’ll leave you guys to ponder, speculate and I’ll write a chapter of my book and you will know all about it,” he said.