Rennie in line for Aust role
ANALYSIS: The final round of the Six Nations was worth the alarm clock pain for the rugby alone, whether it was Ireland’s capitulation in the teeming rain in Cardiff, Warren Gatland’s satisfaction, England’s bossing of the Scots in the first half at Twickenham or the Scots’ incredible response.
But for Australian fans, it was also an opportunity to ponder the merits of potential Wallabies coaches as their teams went head to head in what was, with apologies to the Rugby Championship, the most compelling test rugby series in the world.
It was Scott Johnson’s last professional engagement with Scotland before he starts as Australia’s director of rugby early next week. And if rumours filtering down from the UK are to be believed, Johnson could be bringing a good portion of Scotland’s coaching ranks with him.
Sources have told the Sydney Morning Herald that Glasgow coach Dave Rennie is firming as Rugby Australia’s pick to replace Michael Cheika after the World Cup and Scotland’s respected Australian defence coach Matt Taylor is being touted as a potential deputy.
The RA board is not expected to tackle the issue formally until Johnson has both feet under the desk. Even then the outgoing Scotland director of rugby will have a few pressing issues to deal with first, including finding an attack coach for Michael Cheika, convening the first meeting of the new test selection panel and running the rule over the Wallabies’ pre-World Cup plans.
But there is no doubt a large portion of Johnson’s time will be spent, in conference with RA chief Raelene Castle, assembling the best team possible for the post-Cheika era. The former Waratahs and Leinster coach is contracted until the end of the year but there is little chance he will see that out, miracle or not in Yokohama on November 2.
Rennie may not have been at Twickenham to watch Sam Johnson, his centre at the Warriors, score a 75th minute try to put Scotland out to a 38-31 lead.
But plenty of the expatriate talk in England was about the Super Rugby titlewinning former Chiefs coach as the hot tip to take the reins in Australia at the end of the year, with Taylor – a former flanker from Queensland – in tow. What RA will do about the one-year extension Rennie signed with Glasgow in January will be a matter for them and his manager.
One coach who was at Twickenham was Eddie Jones, forced to watch his players open up a 31-7 halftime lead then surrender it, try by try, until Johnson looked to have pulled off a watershed win for the Scots. A George Ford try and conversion sealed a 38-38 draw, with Jones left to concede his squad lacked the mental edge to put teams to the sword.
There remain pockets of entrenched opposition to a Jones return for Australia, with memories still fresh of his messy exit from the job in 2005 and by now folkloric talk of the exacting and exhausting standards he sets among his playing groups and staff.
Week one of the NRL season is in the books and there were as many dud performances as there were confidence builders across the competition.
Each week Stuff will rank the top eight sides based on quality of performance and competition in the previous round.
The list is fluid, and here’s the top eight sides after an opening week that saw just one match decided by six points or less.
1. Storm
The juggernaut just keeps on keeping on in Victoria.
Melbourne are the masters of round one and last Thursday night was no different as they put on a clinic against the highly touted Broncos, winning 22-12.
You have to go back to 2001 to find the last time the Storm lost a season opener.
Under the best coach in the business, the Storm looked as if they hadn’t missed a beat since 2018 and, led by Dally M Medal contender Cameron Munster, proved they’re once again going to be hanging around come finals time.
2. Warriors
Coach Stephen Kearney couldn’t help but smile after his side’s 40-6 demolishing of the Bulldogs on Saturday – and why wouldn’t he.
The Warriors put in an 80-minute performance worthy of being ranked No 1 on this list, but quality of opposition must be taken into account.
It was as much bad Dogs as it was good Warriors at Mt Smart, as the Kieran Foran-led side failed to establish any parity through the middle third of the park all night as errors compounded their frustration levels.
Still, the Warriors’ new look spine was firing on all cylinders and off the back of their back five – who all ran for over 120m – the new halves controlled the game to near perfection.
3. Rabbitohs
It was billed as Cooper Cronk’s big night as he brought up 350 NRL matches – but it was the other halfback who stole the show.
Adam Reynolds led his Bunnies to a huge upset win over Cronk and the defending premiers 26-16, at the bog that was the SCG.
The Rabbitohs rolled through the middle of the star-studded Roosters pack and off the back of that go forward, Reynolds steered his side to an impressive first up victory under new coach Wayne Bennett.
Greg Inglis didn’t quite look to be at full fitness, so expect to see South Sydney get even better still over the coming weeks.
4. Knights
They were far from perfect, but the Knights did enough to get the win over top four contenders the Sharks and spoil Shaun Johnson’s debut with a hardfought 14-8 win.
Newcastle have plenty of work to do on attack, plainly finding a way to inject young gun Kalyn Ponga more, but coach Nathan Brown would have been impressed by their defence.
Against a backline featuring