By Lucky Maree
The 2023 Rugby World Cup, which is beginning to look more and more like a scripted reality show, has had a missing element – until now.
Eddie Jones makes the perfect joker in the deck – the wild card you can bank on to come up with some surprises.
Does this matter to the Springboks? Make no mistake. With Jones back in the shuffle, it matters to everyone.
With hindsight, the developments of the last few weeks or even months are not surprising. You could rightly call them predictable.
After the poor performance of Eddie Jones as England coach it was almost like a people’s revolution to get rid of him. Insulted and reviled on social media, the final straw seemed to be when the England team was booed off Twickenham after England had lost (deliciously for some) against South Africa.
Heading the lynch mob was Clive Woodward. Woodward was the coach of the spectacularly successful England team that won the World Cup in 2003 with Martin Johnson as captain, so he certainly has the credentials to carry the banner. But did he have to carry on as if Jones was leading England into the burning fires of hell?
Jones’s departure immediately had people asking where he was going and how much he had been paid by the clumsy English Rugby Football Union to get out of his contract.
Suggestions were that he might go to the American Eagles or even a team in the thriving Australian Rugby League.
At the other end of the popularity stakes of Eddie Jones – and at the other end of the world – sits Dave Rennie. Surely one of the most beloved guys in world rugby but also a man with a dismal (13 wins out of 34 tests) record.
The minute the news was out that Rennie had been dumped in favour of Jones it seemed obvious.
Australia should not be a second tier team. They have an international heritage second to none and they have a brilliant World Cup record and they can and should do better.
Will Rennie work with Jones at the Wallabies?
“That won’t happen,” said Rennie, a man not known for many words.
Experts agree on a few things. One is that Dave Rennie got a raw deal. But they also agree, almost to a man, that Australia was not going to win the World Cup with him as the coach. Thirdly, nobody is giving the Wallabies a chance with Eddie Jones either – and that’s a mistake.
They say that there is no downside to kicking down a door that has already been slammed in your face.
The World Cup door was firmly slammed in Dave Rennie’s face, but is there anybody who could kick it down?
Enter the smiling garden gnome who insists on calling everybody mate, as if he was still a dyed-in-the-wool Aussie.
There are players in Australia, like Allan Alaalatoa, James Slipper, the beloved Nic White and Michael Hooper who will lay down their lives for their country. There are talented players like Bernard Foley, and even the terrible triplets, Quade Cooper, James O’Conner and (at a stretch) Kurtley Beale who could still provide some magic if roped in by the right guy.
Could that guy be Eddie Jones?
Don’t ever write him off. He always has a card or two up his sleeve.
Pictured above: Dave Rennie and Eddie Jones. Back to back but not shoulder to shoulder
Image source: Melbourne News
