By Lucky Maree
With former England coach, Australian Eddie Jones walking the streets jobless and New Zealander Dave Rennie struggling as coach of the Wallabies, is it any surprise that Rennie gets dumped and Eddie Jones gets given the job?
Jones coached the Wallabies from 2001 to 2005. He took the Wallabies to the 2003 World Cup final where they were beaten by arguably the best England side ever. The team was captained by the legendary Martin Johnson.
Dave Rennie took over from Michael Cheika at the end of 2019. His sacking comes just eight months out from the global showpiece. Australia won only five matches from 14 tests in 2022.
There has been talk that Jones would be brought into the Wallabies set-up although nobody speculated at the role he would play. The rumour that Rennie and Jones would work together was flattened by Rennie last week.
“It won’t happen,” he said.
Most coaches have a sell-by date and Eddie Jones seems to hit his faster than chicken left out in the sun, but he has the ability to get a team into competitive shape remarkably quickly.
Australia has some of the best players in the world who have been underperforming for a very long time and are hungry for success. Not only is Jones probably the right guy to get them fired up, but with eight months to go before the World Cup it may just be perfect timing.
Meanwhile, France, the one nation that has so far been stable in what is a stormy run-up to the World Cup, has been rocked by a corruption scandal involving French Rugby Federation President Bernard Laporte.
He received a two-year suspended prison sentence on corruption charges just nine months before France hosts the World Cup.
It appears Laporte swung a shirt sponsorship contract for the French national side to Mohed Altrad, the billionaire owner of Top 14 champions Montpellier.
Pictured above: The garden gnome laughing all the way to the bank. Eddie Jones bumps Dave Rennie out of the way
Image source: Andy Rain / EPA
