England were right to replace Wayne Bennett before the World Cup
Wayne Bennett’s reign was only getting worse. England needed a new leader to build for the Rugby League World Cup next year
So that is it. Wane has replaced Wayne. After four years and 20 matches, the reign of King Bennett is over. It was telling that when his contract as England and Great Britain coach was not renewed by RFL head honcho Ralph Rimmer – so much to the chagrin of head of performance Kevin Sinfield that he fell on his sword – there was not a word from the surly old sage himself.
The Bennett paradox has been explored exhaustively. The “Fergie of League” tag is accurate: he is a decent player who has become a massively successful coach over a ridiculously long period; he is feared but loved by most of his players; and he is feared and loathed by many of the press. From my experiences, the myth is based on reality. Having dealt with Bennett as a volunteer, fan, press officer and journalist, I found him brilliantly effusive, humble, ignorant and miserable, respectively. The full gamut.
At a London meeting of local league volunteers in the 2000s, his talk inspired awe in me. A decade later at the Four Nations launch he told Scotland captain Danny Brough “you won’t be here again,” rudely dismissing the chances of Scotland reaching the final. Unfortunately Brough was too flabbergasted to reply: “Neither will you, mate.”
When Bennett took over from Steve McNamara in 2016, England were the second best team in the world. They are now probably fourth best. Bennett was beaten in his last five internationals, with Great Britain losing all four of their matches on tour last year and England going down 34-0 to New Zealand in their most recent match back in 2018. To make matters worse he oversaw defeats to Tonga and Papua New Guinea, meaning the Lions tour was the first time a Great Britain or England side had lost to opponents other than Australia or New Zealand since Wales beat England in 1995 – a run of 50 successive wins. Anyone can lose to Tonga – Australia did, too – but would the Kangaroos have then lost again three weeks later in Papua New Guinea? Like McNamara, Bennett lost all his games against Australia and his record against the Kiwis was mediocre: three wins, four defeats.
Before the collapses in November, it looked as if Bennett was giving his teams resilience and coherence: they hung in far longer than they used to. Having lost nine of their previous 12 tight contests (games decided by fewer than 12 points), under Bennett England and the Lions won three and lost three. Yes, the sample sizes are tiny, but that’s international rugby league. It’s a win-now challenge.
The Lions debacle brought the end for both Sinfield and Bennett. They totally misjudged the Lions return, making it clear from the start of the project that they had no intention of putting together a squad that represented the whole of the British Isles and honoured the illustrious heritage of the Lions. Instead, Bennett sent out England in a new kit.
His bizarre selections suggested that he was biased in favour of NRL and Australian players. Injuries to his ridiculously lopsided Lions squad meant that half-back Blake Austin ended up playing two Tests on the wing while Regan Grace was “not even considered”. In his first three years, Bennett used eight different half-backs in eight partnerships. It looked like he was going to use the same trial-and-error method on the Lions tour when he picked six half-backs, but he stuck with the new pairing of Jackson Hastings and Gareth Widdop through all four defeats on the tour.
Since Mal Reilly stood down in 1994, only McNamara has outlasted Bennett’s four-year spell and yet Bennett put so much emphasis on performance over profile that, after the dirge of Christchurch and the Port Moresby meltdown, he had no one to save him. The Lions tour entered the Heart of Darkness and Bennett became Brando’s Kurtz. As Bennett oversaw the final calamity in Papua New Guinea, he would have been forgiven for crying: “The horror! The horror!”.
Shaun Wane promises fresh start with clubs as new England head coach
Garlanded, lauded and honoured to the hilt, Bennett was given license to say things that just weren’t true. For example, there are “more Test matches and more competitions and you’re starting to see the benefits of it”. In the two years since the last World Cup, New Zealand have played nine Tests, as have England and Great Britain combined. Tonga, the new world force, have only played five: fewer than France, Ireland and Italy, but more than Australia or Papua New Guinea. Wales and Samoa have been seen just thrice.
Between the 2013 and 2017 World Cups, the Kiwis played 16 Tests, the Kangaroos 13, England 12, France 11, Ireland 10 and Italy 15. None of them is likely to match that tally before the next World Cup kicks off in 2021.
The RFL are still yet to confirm whether England will go to Australia for a mid-season Test, or face France, or not play at all.
England have been competitive for two decades without threatening to knock the Kangaroos off their perch. To be crowned world champions next November, Wane has to make the team more than the sum of their parts. Nothing Bennett did last year suggested he would do that in the Ashes later this year, or – importantly – in a home World Cup next summer. Wane will have his work cut out for him, but – as the first England coach since David Waite to not be spending the vast majority of his time coaching his club – at least he can concentrate on the job in hand.
Foreign quota
Scotland and Italy will get a good look at each other before their World Cup clash when they meet in the European Championship in October. France, who are favourites to win the six-team tournament, host Italy the weekend before, then go to Scotland in the third week. The winner of Wales v Ireland should win the other group and reach the final in early November.
Spain, who will have a new coach after the retirement of stalwart Darren Fisher, are expected to be committed newcomers. One of Kevin Sinfield’s last decisions in his RFL role was to keep England out of the tournament yet again, although they are slated to return in 2022. It would be their first appearance since 2012 and they are likely to replace whoever finishes bottom this autumn.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/no-he ... -world-cup