Thanks for the super fast reply @robert-hh
I am using bare board
yes i can successfully connect to the device- in normal boot i get the python prompt, and with the jumper on GP23 i get "waiting for download"
Pc is connected to the internet
As above GPIO0 is tied to ground
I have just solved the issue- i had selected the south african server in the menu, which failed.
I now selected Europe (because it's also RCZ1) and this worked perfectly.
Thanks again for the help!