Rugby World Cup 2023: Alan Jones weighs in on the state of the Wallabies, the return of Eddie Jones and more
A foreigner like Dave Rennie must never coach the Wallabies again, writes ALAN JONES, but of all the Aussies they could have chosen going back to Eddie Jones is hubris.
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There is no doubt that the current state of Australian rugby can be characterised as a clash between rhetoric and reality.
The coveted job of coaching Australia was never advertised.
Indeed, as I have said previously, it is a matter of public record that, while the Rugby Australia Chairman, Hamish McLennan, was assuring the incumbent, Dave Rennie, that he would be coaching the Wallabies up until the World Cup, behind Rennie’s back, McLennan, for months, was reportedly talking to Eddie Jones.
When on Monday January 16, Rennie was sacked and replaced by Jones who had been sacked by England last December 6, McLennan labelled the securing of Jones’ services as a, “major coup”, arguing, “you wait till you get the Wallabies winning, we win the World Cup; we win the British and Irish Lion Series; we win the Bledisloe Cup, and all comes back”.
Most of the mainstream media swallowed all of this rhetoric until reality invaded, as it was bound to.
The reality is that Eddie Jones has won one Test out of his last 14, coaching Australia in 2005 and 2023.
In his last stint coaching England, he won four of his last 13 Tests.
The Chairman of Australian Rugby justified the recall of Eddie Jones by describing him as, “the best coach in the world”.
That is hubris, not rugby.
Twelve months ago, the now sacked Rennie, coached Australia against the All Blacks in Melbourne.
Rennie didn’t have a retinue of 11 assistant coaches, reportedly, currently, in the Jones camp, including, as I understand it, a “learning coach”.
Almost on full time, Australia was leading 37-34, until the French referee penalised Bernard Foley for running down the clock.
Rugby fans will recall a scrum being awarded to the All Blacks for time wasting and, after several rucks, the All Blacks scored in the corner to win, after the bell, 39-37.
The rugby “Messiah”, Jones, had access to the very same players 12 months on, and the Wallabies, a few weeks ago, were thrashed by the All Blacks, 38-7.
On to France, 12 months ago, Dave Rennie’s men lost a nail biter in Paris, 30-29.
Last Saturday week, Eddie Jones had access to the same players, he could have chosen many of them but didn’t, he didn’t even have a recognised goalkicker, and Australia was thrashed 41-17.
You can’t argue with the scoreboard.
The last time Eddie Jones coached the Wallabies he was sacked after seven straight losses in 2005.
He went to Queensland to coach the Reds.
Things became so toxic in the changeroom that players rebelled; and in the last game of the season, in 2007, Eddie Jones’ Queensland side was annihilated, 92-3 by the Bulls in South Africa.
Subsequently, the same Eddie Jones was sacked by Saracens and, as we know, sacked at the end of last year by England.
As I have also previously reported, though comprehensively ignored by those running the game, during Eddie Jones’ seven years at the helm of the English team, he churned through 18 coaches and 112 players.
And here we are in August 2023.
The attack coach walked out on the eve of the team leaving for France.
The defence coach has never coached a rugby union side before.
The maul coach, I understand, is a former scrum half.
The line out coach is a former scrum coach.
And then there is a learning coach.
What do all these people do?
When Eddie Jones was sacked from the England job he said his greatest mistake was the appointment of his assistant coaches, arguing his assistants are, “just so important because they are doing the bulk of the coaching”.
One wonders what Eddie Jones has been appointed to do.
Of course, as the nation gets ready to ride another World Cup rollercoaster, we are all hoping the Wallabies can inspire us with a Matildas-like performance.
Sadly, most of us would settle for a semi-final appearance in France, which says a lot about where our game is right now.
Many Wallabies’ supporters will remember a time when we legitimately expected our team to win the William Webb Ellis Cup.
At sport lunches and charity functions all around the country I am asked questions about our World Cup campaign.
The first question is, can the Wallabies win the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
My response is categorically yes, we always have very good players.
The argument that we don’t is nothing more than an excuse for poor performance.
As I have said many times, before you can be a successful Wallaby coach, you must be a successful selector.
Sadly, there are many question marks over the selections of this current World Cup side.
Nonetheless, sporting enthusiasts would well remember the 1964 World Heavyweight Boxing Championship between Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston.
Clay, later to become Muhammad Ali, was just 22 years of age when he shook up the world and stopped the World Title holder in the sixth round.
It was a metaphor of the fact that anything is possible.
I am asked would Eddie Jones be a better coach than Dave Rennie?
People who have read my comments previously would know that I did not approve of Dave Rennie being appointed the Australian coach.
I don’t approve of foreigners being given the job.
New Zealand would never ask me to coach the All Blacks, and nor should they; but, the demonisation of Dave Rennie to justify the performance of Eddie Jones has gone over the top.
I am not much fussed about world rankings because Australia plays the All Blacks more than most other countries that are ranked ahead of us.
Under Dave Rennie we were ranked sixth in the world with a win rate of 40%.
We are now ranked ninth.
So, on the available evidence, it is fair to say the Wallabies have gone backwards under Eddie Jones; and the excuses never stop coming.
One of these excuses is the nonsense about a young team.
The average age of the team that played France, last Saturday week, was 26.
My 1984 Wallabies won a Grand Slam with an average age of 24.
This business about a young side is nonsense.
If you are good enough, age is not a factor.
Do we have enough experience?
Well, experience is a double edge sword.
You need wise heads in key positions within the team.
Those key positions are hooker, line out caller, number 8, the half backs and the fullback.
I would always be looking for class and experience in those positions, but around them, I am a believer in surrounding those people with young ambitious players who have not had instinctive playing coached out of them.
I don’t believe you can get to a World Cup final without an attack that is capable of scoring tries.
I don’t believe you can win a World Cup without great defence and a world class goalkicker.
I support the selection of young Carter Gordon as a ball player but he is a back-up Test player at this stage, not a front liner.
He is not a world class kicker and to throw that responsibility on his shoulders only invites trouble for the team.
Quade Cooper, Bernard Foley and James O’Connor were all overlooked as the experienced options to run the team on the field.
The next question I get is, who do we have to beat to get to the playoffs and what kind of game will we have to play to give us the best chance of winning?
This is where Australia may well be let off the hook.
Our first pool match in the World Cup is against Georgia.
To be fair, we should have far too much strike power for them.
We simply need to keep the ball in hand and unleash our talented backs.
After Georgia, we play Fiji and Wales.
Both teams are a threat to our chances of getting out of the pool stages.
Never before has a Wallaby team been dumped out of the playoff stage.
Failing to at least make the quarter finals is unthinkable.
Fiji, on the other hand, recently beat a poor England at Twickenham, but they beat them well.
They are a dangerous team with ball in hand.
Against Fiji we need to go after them in the set pieces and deny them in broken play.
Wales will be a different challenge.
They, too, are playing poorly but under the return of Warren Gatland as coach, they are starting to get their act together.
To beat Wales we would have to match them physically and again play our width where the attacking talent exists.
Our last pool game will be against Portugal, an opportunity to rest some key players.
Most of the Shute Shield teams in Sydney would hammer Portugal so that is no more than a practice run.
One of the weaknesses, though, in the Jones’ strategy is that we still don’t have, “a team”; we don’t have, “combinations”; we are constantly changing the composition of the side so that players have not played with one another often enough.
Consider the captaincy.
We have had four captains in as many Test matches.
If you read the newspapers or listen to the television, this Wallabies side is all about Eddie Jones.
Few supporters could name five players.
That shouldn’t be.
Jones is the only co-coach ever to be paid by two countries to attend the same World Cup.
What is wrong with a one-year deal and have the coaching performance reviewed at the end of one year?
A few weeks ago I hosted a Wallabies’ Reunion Barbeque.
We all sat around cheering on the Matildas as they won their epic quarter final against France.
The Matildas took Australia on a magical ride through their World Cup.
It is the turn of the Wallabies now to do the same.
Can the new captain, Will Skelton, encourage his troops to shake up the world of rugby as Cassius Clay shook up the world of boxing in 1964?
Let’s hope so but, on what we have seen, it is a massive task.
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Originally published as Rugby World Cup 2023: Alan Jones weighs in on the state of the Wallabies, the return of Eddie Jones and more