Dave Rennie will be spared the axe, but it could yet fall on Eddie Jones as Australia and England react to horror Test seasons.
Rennie will coach the Wallabies through to the end of the 2023 World Cup after a career-saving win over Wales last week, despite the Test side clocking their worst season in three years under the New Zealander to finish with an overall win rate of just 38 per cent – the lowest in the professional era.
But Jones may not be so lucky after his England side notched their worst season since 2008 and were booed off the pitch after a 27-13 loss to the Springboks.
The RFU had promised a review, but sources indicated they could act before that to bring down the curtain on Jones’s tenure with the 2003 World Cup winners. London’s Daily Mail reported that senior RFU performance executive Conor O’Shea was canvassing players.
Jones is bracing for the worst amid speculation about the departures of senior backroom staff, including team doctor Richard Tingay and recently arrived former Great Britain hockey coach Danny Kerry.
The main contenders for a post-World Cup handover – Scott Robertson, Steve Borthwick and Ronan O’Gara – all met with the RFU on the same day three weeks ago, when Robertson was in London coaching the Barbarians against an All Blacks XV.
Eddie Jones is bracing for the worst after his worst season in charge of England.Credit:AP
Whether any of them would be in a position or willing to take over at short notice is another matter. Robertson, the Crusaders’ coach, will be one of the top two picks for New Zealand Rugby in the likely event they look to move on from Ian Foster after next year’s tournament. He may not want to make a move before he gets a better sense of where he stands with the All Blacks job.
Borthwick coached Leicester to the UK Premiership last season and was the early favourite as the only English candidate, with some talk he could team up with Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter. He was Jones’ forwards coach during England’s excellent 2019 World Cup campaign and is seen in some quarters as the continuity option, but would be contracted to the Tigers in 2023.
O’Gara is mid-season with French club La Rochelle and is in talks to re-sign for another three years, sources told the Herald. The former Ireland international led the club to a European Champions Cup title last season but would be the least experienced candidate, with no experience coaching at Test level.
Former Wales and British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland would also be in the mix and the only one in a position to start immediately. He has also been linked to another tilt with Wales, given Wayne Pivac’s poor results and unpopularity.
Crusaders coach Scott Robertson met with the RFU three weeks ago.Credit:Getty
If Jones is sacked, it would add intrigue to the hunt for the next Wallabies coach. The Herald reported the experienced coach, who had success leading Australia, Japan and England at Test level, was in talks to join USA Rugby on a long-term deal.
USA Rugby boss Ross Young said no decision had been made on current coach Gary Gold’s future, but Jones will be in high demand as one of the most experienced and successful coaches around. The Eagles are a turnaround job of the highest order, having failed to qualify for next year’s World Cup and with the tournament headed there in 2031.
Rennie has cooled on hopes of an extension with Australia beyond the end of 2023, with a review underway into Australia’s catastrophic injury toll. Sources have linked the well-liked coach to a potential reunion with Wayne Smith at Japanese club Kobe, or a move to France.
The news comes as New Zealand and Australia bury the hatchet on Super Rugby and agree a long-term deal to keep a 12-team competition intact until 2030.
The deal will be announced in Sydney on Friday, the Herald understands, with Australia to retain five teams through until after the 2029 women’s World Cup.
It is a big breakthrough after months of negotiations, during which Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan repeatedly threatened to walk away from the 25-year-old partnership.
A report in the New Zealand Herald suggested the final terms of the agreement, which starts in 2024, would see “temporary financial arrangements” in place in 2024 and potentially 2025. A final revenue split would be agreed for 2026 and beyond, which would dovetail with RA’s next broadcast deal. Nine, publisher of this masthead, has a two-year option to extend at the end of 2023.
NZR, which has a $100 million a year broadcast deal with Sky, gives RA about $5 million a year under the terms of the current, post-Covid Super Rugby Pacific arrangement. RA, which runs its business on a $32 million per year deal with Nine and Stan, wanted that contribution to increase to as much as $10 million in the new deal. It is not known where negotiations settled.
RA will see the deal as a win, having seen off NZR’s 2020 proposal that Australia field just two teams in an overhauled regional competition.
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