OPINION
This opinion piece was first published on September 20, before Australia’s defeat to Wales at the Rugby World Cup
By Liam Napier
Dave Rennie must be chowing down the popcorn as he watches the Wallabies’ shambolic World Cup show unfold from afar.
Rennie was shafted as Wallabies coach. That much is clear as the decision to appoint Eddie Jones on the eve of the global tournament detonates in Rugby Australia’s face.
With one season remaining on his four-year contract, Rennie deserved his crack at this World Cup. While results weren’t forthcoming, Rennie garnered widespread respect from his players, and he had a core of experience waiting in the wings to return from injury.
There are no quick fixes for the Wallabies. Rugby Australia, though, jumped at the headline-grabbing alternative to paint Jones as the immediate saviour on little more than blind faith.
How’s that going?
The Wallabies have morphed from pushing Ireland and France, the world’s highest-ranked teams, to the brink under Rennie on last year’s northern tour to winning one of their last seven tests – against Georgia – under Jones.
For all the bluster and tired diversion statements, Jones is on the verge of guiding the Wallabies to a new low - their first World Cup pool stage exit. And if that ignominy transpires, he can only look in the mirror.
A staggering groundswell of expectation and promises accompanied Jones’ appointment seven months out from the World Cup.
Australian rugby fans are now rapidly turning to point the finger squarely at their governing body’s board.
Credit to Fiji, of course. They could, should, be two-from-two at this World Cup after highly questionable refereeing and a late botched try cost them victory against Wales.
Fiji deserves every accolade. Against the Wallabies, they exposed the typecast fallacy that they are merely a flamboyant team. Sure, Josh Tuisova is a one-man wrecking ball and Fiji possesses lethal athletes, but their triumph was built on pressure rugby – supreme breakdown dominance, scrum superiority and kicking the points on offer.
Should the potential darlings of this tournament reach the knockouts at Australia or Wales’ expense, their case for inclusion in the Rugby Championship should be undeniable.
Fiji’s win over the Wallabies was no fluke. No surprise, either, after knocking over England at Twickenham last month.
This is a side, after all, that has beaten three of the 2019 World Cup quarter-finalists in their last five matches.
A Rennie-coached Wallabies would not, however, have dished up such an insipid performance.
Jones’ squad selection – from picking one rookie first five-eighth to axing veteran figures, rotating the team’s captaincy and compiling one of the least experienced World Cup teams – has lurched from one bizarre twist to the next. That approach creates back-page content in a country where rugby battles for eyeballs. The on-field evidence of those decisions is increasingly apparent, though.
Every rugby metric says World Cups are not the time to exclusively back youth and attempt to usher through generational change.
With no cohesion and minimal leadership, what did Jones expect?
The red flags were prevalent long before the Wallabies landed in France, too. Sirens sounded when highly regarded forwards mentor Dan Mckellar and attack coach Scott Wisemantel exited. New attack coach Brad Davis then walked out as the Wallabies prepared to depart to France, leaving Jones in the all-to-familiar position of scrambling to fill voids in his coaching staff.
The one-man show is, therefore, his burden to bear.
Without influential injured forwards Taniela Tupou and Will Skelton – neither of whom will be back for the defining pool match against Wales – Fiji manhandled and bullied the Wallabies at the breakdown. Super Rugby Pacific might allow for small ball tactics, but in the big league, size matters.
Fiji lost six lineouts – and the Wallabies still couldn’t capitalise. Their tactical kicking was woeful and their inexperience, the pressure, told in their 18 penalties conceded.
One of their two tries should not have stood, either, after Richie Arnold’s blatant hand in the ruck to shine a further spotlight on how far off the pace they appear.
From a New Zealand perspective, while kicking a downtrodden Australian, in a sporting context at least, is a favoured pastime, the Wallabies’ plight is nothing to celebrate.
A World Cup pool exit would not help leverage significant uplift from Rugby Australia’s next broadcast negotiation, which would, in turn, affect New Zealand Rugby’s bottom line.
As for Rennie, he is not the character to revel in the Wallabies’ pain. He cares deeply for his players – the few Jones has retained – and will want them to respond on the pinnacle stage.
After a hefty payout from Rugby Australia and a new lucrative job leading Kobe in Japan, Rennie is well-set.
In private, though, he is well entitled to chuckle at the trumpeted messiah who followed.
Liam Napier has been a sports journalist since 2010, and his work has taken him to World Cups in rugby, netball and cricket, boxing world title fights and Commonwealth Games.
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