INTERNATIONAL rugby these days is talked about in terms of World Cup four-year rotations, with every coach building towards the next one. We are now about 22 international games away from France 2023, and with two years to go the ideal position would be to have an established team right now.
You would not want to introduce ten new caps in that period, because it would be a lot to ask the team to get into the later stages of the knockouts. However, changing a captain would not be anywhere near as disruptive, especially if you have a number of established players already who could step up.
I...