RWC 2019

[Ruckedtobits]

Jones had a great start, then a five-in-a-row fall which included the first two Tests against a brand new SA Coach. He then disposed of two Captains. Robshaw and Hartley and a 70 cap full-back Brown, before beating SA by 12-11 at home in November 2018 and followed it up 7 days later by running NZ to a point in Twickers. His next outing inflicted a severe dent on our chariot for the whole of 2019 with his team's performance in February 2019 in Aviva.

He followed that with a 44 -8 winning performance against France and was looking like he was a rival for Bill Bellichec before his team dissolved against Wales in the final quarter in Cardiff. The key to that game was that Wales were able survive the English power in the collisions in the first-half and their reknowned fitness brought them through the last 20 minutes with two superb aerial tries.

Jones has done well but, unlike NZ, his "new" team has not appeared capable of repeated victories from week to week. Despite hammering Ireland again in the RWC warm-up game, they then went down to Cardiff and lost again by 13-6.

In summary, excellence based on physicality and attacking skills, peppered with a tendancy to subsequent low performances against teams who matched them physically.

Have we seen that summary elsewhere over the past couple of Seasons?

[Ruckedtobits]

So the first beneficiary of RWC19 fallout has been named and it's........................Dave Rennie, Head Coach of Oz as successor to Michael Cheika. All the way through to France 2023 is a great contract.

He takes up the role next July after he finishes up with Glasgow Warriors. Will we see (or have we already seen) some "lame duck syndrome" ?