Dave Rennie

With the World Cup looming, the All Blacks great expects Rennie’s successor Eddie Jones will harness the emotions of Test rugby to revitalise the faltering Wallabies.

A spring tour that yielded two wins from five games proved the last straw for Rennie, who was axed last week with the worst win percentage of the professional era and just under a year to run on his contract.

Carter played against the Chiefs during Rennie’s time coaching the Super Rugby side and despite the poor recent results said the dismissal had surprised him.

In a bombshell move by Rugby Australia, New Zealander Rennie was peremptorily fired after three seasons in the post and replaced by Australian Eddie Jones, who was sacked as England coach in December.

In a statement Rennie expressed disappointment that he wouldn't be able to fulfil his contract and lead them to this year's Rugby World Cup.

"I'm disappointed I won't be able to see out my contract in the way I agreed to back in 2019 but leave knowing I had the full support of the playing group and the staff."

That was a few days before Jones's England side famously beat the All Blacks in a World Cup semifinal, dumping them out of the tournament.

Because of the All Blacks' and England's scarcity of fixtures, Jones didn't get another chance to have a dig at New Zealand till late last year, when somehow his side came back from 25-6 down with 10 minutes left to tie the scores at fulltime. Had Marcus Smith not sent one conversion wide, it would have been remembered as one of the greatest English victories ever.

Jones has signed a five-year deal and will start on January 29, with Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan confirming the news in a statementon Monday morning.

“It is a major coup for Australian Rugby to have the best coach in the world return home to coach the iconic Wallabies and to oversee the Wallaroos program,” McLennan said.

“Eddie’s deep understanding of our rugby system and knowledge of our player group and pathways will lift the team to the next level.

Wallabies fans may have hoped for results-based progress in Rennie's third season in charge but their team have now lost a home series to England, crashed to their heaviest defeat to Argentina and slumped to seventh in the world rankings.

The New Zealander will name his squad this week for back-to-back Rugby Championship matches against the Springboks starting in Adelaide on Aug. 27 and could welcome up to eight fit-again players back to camp.

RA chairman Hamish McLennan dropped a bombshell last week by reportedly telling Kiwi counterpart Stewart Mitchell that Australia would consider going it alone in Super Rugby from 2024 onwards.

McLennan said in a later interview that RA would fulfil its 2023 Super Rugby Pacific commitments but hinted an all-Australian competition could be launched after that, with a view to the Rugby World Cup in 2027.

Rennie is adamant the model that will benefit the Wallabies the most is the current one, in which Australian sides battle the might of New Zealand's best.

Australia's rebuilding New South Wales Waratahs stunned New Zealand powerhouse the Crusaders on Saturday, their first win over Kiwi opposition since 2019.

The ACT Brumbies were convincing winners over the Hurricanes on Sunday.

"The other sides all went close ... so it's good," Rennie said in Melbourne on Monday.

"I think we're certainly more competitive and teams can take a lot of confidence out of that.

Rennie, who himself conceded that his side had been far from their best in their 15-13 defeat by Scotland at Murrayfield on Monday morning (AEDT), did not sound overly happy to hear how Stan Sport pundit Mehrtens had stuck the boot into the disjointed Australian performance.

“I worry a little bit for the Wallabies, because if they keep muddling through like they have in these last two games (against Japan and now Scotland), if they play like that again they’ll get a heap put on them,” Mehrtens, the 70-times capped All Black noted.

Rennie gave Cooper a surprise call-up to the Wallabies squad ahead of their Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship campaigns last month after incumbent pivot James O’Connor suffered a groin complaint during Super Rugby Trans-Tasman.

Cooper hasn’t played for the Wallabies since 2017, and the 70-test veteran watched on from the stands as the Wallabies were defeated in successive tests in Auckland earlier this month as the All Blacks locked the Bledisloe Cup away for a 19th straight year.

Rennie will name his players next Sunday for the series, which opens in Sydney on July 7, with three Tests played in 11 days, and says there will be some changes to the 40-man training squad he named in March.

"We've got the spine of a team ... there's certainly positions that we're unsure of and the next couple of weeks are going to be important for those individuals," Rennie told Stan Sport.

After leaving out all three of the hookers he used in 2020, Rennie said the No.2 jersey still remained wide open, as did spots in the second row.