The old order has shifted during the past 10 years with Exeter among those growing in stature while
France faded
![Japan blossom and Baa-Baas take Brazil in decade of new horizons | Robert Kitson](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3120cc486af6bd7582da1e6ea976c192e21ca8aa/0_51_3600_2160/master/3600.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=3aa9168d4a27fda4e317306fe45f643f)
The best way to measure the true impact of the past rugby decade is to count the number of significant moments few could have foreseen. By that yardstick the 2010s must qualify among the more remarkable periods in the sport’s history, regardless of the naysayers who like to argue the game is not what it once was.
To say a bit has happened since
Christmas 2009 – when Martin Johnson was in charge of
England, France were about to win the 2010 Six Nations and an 18-year-old Beauden Barrett had just left Francis Douglas Memorial College in New Plymouth – is an understatement. Who could have predicted
Japan would go on to win big at
World Cup tournaments against
South Africa,
Ireland and
Scotland, that Eddie Jones would become England’s coach or that the
British &
Irish Lions would still not have been beaten in a Test series a decade on?