Cotter on Close Watch
Monitoring the upcoming Test performance of Wales and Australia is top of the list for Flying Fijians head coach Vern Cotter.
The two nations are our Pool C opponents at this year’s Rugby World Cup in France, from September 8 to October 28, and they have recently changed their head coaches.
With less than eight months away from the RWC, Wales sacked head coach Wayne Pivac and recalled Warren Gatland.
Early this week in a shock move from Rugby Australia, it dropped the axe on Dave Rennie and brought back Eddie Jones who was also recently fired by England.
Speaking to SUNSports yesterday, Cotter said Australia had some close games during their last November tour to Europe.
“They (Australia) were building slowly with Rennie,” he said.
“It was a tough call to let him (Rennie) go. Jones will have some pressure on to get them (Australia) performing above Rennie.”
Rennie had been rebuilding the Australian side where he managed to record 12 wins and three draws from the 33 Test matches they played.
Jones was Australia’s head coach when they reached the final of the 2003 RWC in Sydney where they lost to England 20-17 and at the 2019 RWC, he coached England when they bowed out to South Africa 3212 in the final.
He will have five Test matches to get the Wallabies up to speed ahead of this year’s RWC.
Cotter said the upcoming Six Nations, would give an insight of the Welsh side.
“Gatland will keep his traditional style with them (Wales), which is pragmatic,” he added.
Gatland was tasked to rebuild the Wales side soon after the 2007 RWC after they failed to qualify for the Cup quarterfinal following their 38-34 loss to the Flying Fijians. He guided Wales to a semifinal spot at the 2011 RWC where they lost 9-8 to France. Wales finished fourth, their highest ever ranking, after losing 21-18 to Australia in the Bronze final.
Cotter highlighted that competition in Pool C would be tight as they also have to contend with Georgia and Portugal. In the last November
Test, Georgia upset Wales 13-12 while Portugal drew with USA 16-16 to qualify for the RWC.
The no-nonsense coach said another factor that could affect the performance of any team in the RWC is injuries to their key players.
Cotter is keeping his fingers crossed that our star performers like Semi Radradra, Waisea Nayacalevu, Sam Matavesi, Viliame Mata to mention a few to be injury free come RWC time.