How Eddie Jones came to Will Skelton as skipper at Rugby World Cup
There were many choices that kept Eddie Jones up at night, none more so than who was the right man to skipper the Wallabies. Eventually he settled on Will Skelton, here’s why.
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Of all the decisions Eddie Jones agonised over before finalising his World Cup selections, the toughest and most important of all was deciding who should captain the squad.
The common denominator in each of the previous nine World Cups is that the winning team has been captained by an inspiring leader.
By any measure, it was a surprise appointment because Jones had already tried three other skippers – Michael Hooper, James Slipper and Tate McDermott.
But in wanting to pick a new team for a new era of Australian rugby, Jones saw Skelton as the right man to lead the change.
“It‘s more leading the team than captaining the team because you can be a good captain and a poor leader,” Jones said.
“Will‘s a very good leader of men … so we’ve been thinking about it pretty strongly for the last two weeks.”
Skelton had no idea he was even being considered for the captaincy until Jones approached him this week.
His instant response was to politely decline the offer, but the boss was insistent he at least consider it.
“I asked him to have a think about it because sometimes, particularly for the humble players, captaincy is not something they will want and you have to encourage them to take it,” Jones said.
“I‘ve had similar situations with other good men like Will … but we came to the decision that he’s the man to take the job.”
“What comes of that is a lot of responsibilities, a bit more pressure,” Skelton said.
“But for me, it‘s just about being myself and leading in any way I can, which is just through my actions.
“I‘m not much of a talker around the team, but it’s about … getting this group well connected for the hard slog that’s going to be the World Cup.”
Although he made his test debut way back in 2014, Skelton is still a bit of an enigma with the Australian rugby public.
He played at the 2015 World Cup, but was injured, then moved to Europe and has been there ever since, building a reputation as one of the world’s biggest and best locks.
His only captaincy experience was leading the Wallabies against the French Barbarians in a tour game in 2016, but he didn’t play for Australia again for another five years until the SOS call came.
“I lack a lot of it (captaincy experience) but I‘m excited for this challenge,” he said.
“I‘m excited to see what this group can do. They’re very young, very enthusiastic, ambitious. And we’re looking to make some headlines over in France.”
The 10th man to be named captain of the Wallabies at the World Cup, Skelton is following in the footsteps of some of the game’s greats – and hoping history will repeat itself.
His vice-captain is McDermott, Australia’s first-choice halfback.
The last time the Wallabies won the Rugby World Cup was in 1999. The captain then was John Eales, also a lock, And his deputy was George Gregan, a halfback.
The coincidences don’t end there. The Wallabies’ opponents in the 1999 final were France – host of this year’s tournament.
“We are a young squad full of energy,” Skelton said.
“We‘ve been slowly building the last few weeks. We haven’t got the results, but as a squad we’ve seen improvements and we’re ready to attack this World Cup.”
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Originally published as How Eddie Jones came to Will Skelton as skipper at Rugby World Cup
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