England coach Eddie Jones won’t rule out replacing Michael Cheika

Eddie Jones and his highly rated Australian assistant Scott Wisemantel wouldn’t be goaded into Wallabies coaching talk, but significantly, neither man ruled themselves out of replacing Michael Cheika.

England coach Eddie Jones (L) with former Australia coach Michael Cheika. Picture: Adrian Dennis/AFP

• NRL loses teenage superstar to rugby union
• The many faces behind Eddie’s miracles
• Cheika chaos hurts case against Folau

England’s dream team coaching combination of Eddie Jones and Scott Wisemantel have not ruled themselves out of contention to replace Michael Cheika as Wallabies coach.

Both Jones and his highly rated assistant Wisemantel have been identified as the master tacticians capable of bringing Australian rugby back to the glory days after the team’s embarrassing flop at the World Cup.

Neither man would give a definitive answer on whether they intended to go for the job or whether they had been in discussions with Rugby Australia, saying their sole focus was on England’s World Cup semi-final against New Zealand, but significantly, they did not rule it out when they easily could have.

Stream the Rugby World Cup 2019 on KAYO SPORTS. Every match Live & On-Demand on your TV, computer, mobile or tablet. Get your 14 day free trial >

England coach Eddie Jones (L) with former Australia coach Michael Cheika. Picture: Adrian Dennis/AFP

“I don’t think that’s really a question for now, mate,” Jones said.

“I think we’ve got a pretty important game on Saturday and that’s the only thing we’re worried about.”

Jones still has two more years to run on his contract as England head coach but Wisemantel said he’s finished up after the World Cup - and revealed he is heading back to Australia in a fortnight - to work as a part-time teacher.

“On November 6th, I’m a schoolteacher. I’m a casual teacher, that’s what I do. I go home and I become a casual teacher,” he said.

“I might teach agriculture. I might teach music, I don’t know.

“That’s it for the short term so after that I don’t know.

“But the one bloke I will sit down and have a chat to is Eddie Jones and we’ll chat after that.”

Eddie’s Aussie assistant Scott Wisemantel. Picture: David Rogers/Getty

While New Zealander Dave Rennie has emerged as the frontrunner to succeed Cheika, calls are growing louder for an Australian to take charge of the Wallabies and Jones-Wisemantel double looms as one of the dream tickets.

Not only would their appointment help the Wallabies as the begin rebuilding towards the next World Cup, but it would provide the added bonus of weakening the Poms, who haven’t stopped gloating since knocking Australia out in last weekend’s quarterfinals.

Jones, who was sacked two years after leading the Wallabies to the 2003 World Cup final, still hasn’t shown any sympathy to his homeland after the result, but said he did feel bad for hold Randwick clubmate Cheika, who has come under fierce criticism from Australian rugby fans after falling on his sword last weekend.

“It’s never pleasant when you lose your job, it’s tough and there’s various comments made around the place and I do feel for him personally,” Jones said.

“You know I think he’s put some pride back in Australian rugby, like us all, we make mistakes, we do silly things and he’s just human.

“He’s given that job everything he can and he got Australia out of a difficult situation and got them in a World Cup final in 2015 and I’m sure that he’ll rise again as a coach.”

Originally published as England coach Eddie Jones won’t rule out replacing Michael Cheika