Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh ‘really annoyed’ by comments from departing Eddie Jones
A mutual decision to part ways between Eddie Jones and Rugby Australia all seemed very amicable, but then some comments from the departing coach left a sour taste in the mouth.
Wallabies
Don't miss out on the headlines from Wallabies. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Eddie Jones’s comments that former long-serving Wallabies captain Michael Hooper was not a good role model for current players have finally drawn criticism of the coach from Rugby Australia’s chief executive.
RA’s backing of Jones has known almost no bounds.
Appointing him off the back of an eventually disastrous parting with England, no worries.
Torching the carefully laid foundations of the coach originally appointed to lead the Wallabies to the World Cup - no big deal.
Agreeing to roll the dice on a team light on experience for the biggest event on the sport’s calendar; failing to fully explore allegations the national mentor is in discussions with another country; initially backing the coach to lead on after the worst World Cup result in Wallabies history.
The list goes on and on.
Finally, there has been a mutual decision to split.
A very modern conscious uncoupling of coach and national body.
All very amicable.
Until Jones could not help but verbally torch the joint on the way out.
Jones’s view that RA is on a “road to nowhere” due to the slow pace of reform -specifically centralisation - irked CEO Phil Waugh, who fronted a press conference in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon.
But it was his characterisation of former Wallabies captain Michael Hooper, along with Quade Coper and Bernard Foley, as not the right role models for players going forward, that really annoyed Waugh.
A former Wallabies captain himself who finished with 79 international caps in a decade-long career, Waugh leapt to the defence of Hooper and co.
“I think it’s a completely unfair comment,” he said of Jones’s assertion in an interview with Nine Newspapers’ former Wallaby Peter FitzSimons.
“Across Michael Hooper, Quade Cooper (and) Bernard Foley, there’s 280 to 300 Test matches between those three,” Waugh said.
“They’ve all put their body on the line over a long period of time and are role models, to not just their peers but young boys and girls coming through the system.
“I think it’s an absolutely unfair comment towards those players given what they’ve contributed to rugby.”
While he wouldn’t go as far as to say the trio should have been selected, Waugh conceded there were a “lot of very capable and good players left at home”, in as close to criticism of the World Cup squad as there has been from a senior RA staffer.
Waugh was on the RA board that decided to tear up Dave Rennie’s contract last year and appoint Jones in his place.
He was not about to label that decision as wrong.
But he has been disappointed with some of Jones’s commentary since the coach announced earlier this week his decision to resign.
Not only has Jones walked away from the Wallabies after committing publicly - again and again - to the long-term revival of Australian rugby.
But he’s spoken out about the slow pace of reform and spending on high performance.
While Waugh praised Jones’s handling of the process that led to a deed of release from his five-year contract without significant financial penalty for RA, he was disappointed in his latest characterisation of the sport.
“I was disappointed in those comments,” Waugh said.
“I think that we’ve achieved a lot in terms of the vision going forward. The performances haven’t been good enough for long enough.
“… in terms of having no direction, I’d strongly dispute that because they think we’ve got a very strong direction and a very strong vision.”
More Coverage
Originally published as Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh ‘really annoyed’ by comments from departing Eddie Jones