GB Tour : 2019

This was an unusual tour for various reasons as I will explain below.

The name: Years ago Great Britain teams did have some players from across that realm so it meant something. However, GB was dropped some time back because it had become increasingly an England side only. To now revive it makes no sense at all seeing as it is still an England team in all but name. There is no GB on the international ranking list so the team was deemed to be England so that it gave participating nations a ranking score for each match. Crazy.


The coach: W Bennett did a fine job getting England to the last World Cup final but I was hoping he would be replaced as he's not getting any younger and I think its time he retired from coaching. The powers that be retained him so I see that as a 'go with what has worked' decision rather than 'let's do something new'?


The itinerary: Coming all the way across the world and not playing Australia was a disappointment. The Aussies had an Oceania Cup but surely a game could have been arranged. NZ and Tonga managed it.


The games: I won't give match summaries as the media has done that well enough but a brief overview is in order. First up GB took on Tonga and lost 6-14. Tonga went on to defeat Australia so this is a good side. Still, only scoring six points was a concern.

Then the two games against NZ. The first was a 8-12 loss but the match was there for the taking. England's (sorry GB's) inability to finish was starting to take on a pattern. In the third tour match, NZ grew in confidence as it sensed the opposition's uninspiring attacks were of little threat and went on to win 23-8.

Three losses to GB, never getting into double figures and only scoring one try per game. Woeful. At least going up to PNG gave them a chance to end the tour with partial redemption. Quickly up 10-0 looked promising but the heat and another substandard effort made the Kumuls look like world beaters, as they overpowered GB in a 28-10 victory.


Conclusion: The four match, four loss tour should lead to an overhaul heading into the next WC. A change of coach at this point is not ideal but neither is the present coach inspiring confidence. If this horrendous tour changes nothing, then either the powers that be have confidence things can be fixed or fear change would be disrupting and only make things worse.