Rugby news: Why Wallabies must sign Eddie Jones after being sacked by England
Rugby Australia must sack Dave Rennie and get Eddie Jones back as coach if they want any shot at winning the World Cup, writes Julian Linden.
Rugby
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rugby. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Rugby Australia should move heaven and earth to get Eddie Jones back as head coach of the Wallabies after he was axed by England overnight.
Nice bloke that he is, Dave Rennie’s 38 per cent winning strike rate over three seasons is a pathetic return for the investment in him and he needs to be shown the door immediately if the Wallabies want to have any real shot at winning next year’s World Cup.
RA completely dropped the ball when they didn’t have the guts to sack Rennie before now, even though the team was going backwards and he was clueless about how to end the mounting losses and inexcusable lack of discipline.
It was only during the Wallabies’ embarrassing tour of Europe that Rennie’s apologists finally figured out they’d backed the wrong horse - but with the 2023 World Cup less than 10 months away - they wrongly assumed it was too late to change.
Thankfully, both the English and Welsh boards have shown the courage to replace their coaches. Now it’s on Rugby Australia to do the same.
Wales will be much stronger for replacing the ineffective Wayne Pivac but England will rue letting Jones go, especially if Australia seizes the opportunity to get him.
Ignore all the bleating from the Poms that Jones is a prickly character who doesn’t suffer fools and leaves everyone walking on eggshells.
So what! This is professional sport so buckle up folks.
Jones is an unashamed hard taskmaster - but what’s more important is that he’s also a winner, and the Wallabies need that more than anything right now because they’ve become accustomed to losing.
Following a review of the @autumnnations, Eddie Jones has been dismissed as England men’s head coach.
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) December 6, 2022
The RFU will conclude coach succession planning in the near future.
Read the full RFU statement here 👉 https://t.co/eyoWDAb6kdpic.twitter.com/QwiCg4vkci
If there’s one lesson Rugby Australia should have learnt from the Socceroos’ inspiring performances at the FIFA World Cup, it is that Aussies love winners and old fashioned heart-on-the-sleeve coaches can make winners out of anyone.
Like the Wallabies, the Socceroos are hardly overstocked with stars but Graham Arnold proved that the right coach can lift them to levels they never thought possible.
Jones may not be everyone’s cup of tea but he has that same rare ability and a track record that is second to none.
He’s had success with the Wallabies, South Africa, Japan and England and at 62, he’s as sharp as ever. His winning ratio with England over the past seven years is an astonishing 74 per cent.
Of course, that’s no guarantee Jones will turn the current Wallabies into world champions by next year but what is there to lose?
Rugby Australia keeps telling everyone that hosting the 2027 World Cup will solve all of Australia’s problems but they’re not fooling anyone.
All the focus right now should be on winning the 2023 World Cup and Jones is the only coach who will give the Wallabies the best chance.
What happens after that, doesn’t matter right now. Like the Socceroos, the Wallabies need to seize the moment.
While it goes against logic, changing coaches late in the day has been a winning move for plenty of other teams.
The Springboks won the World Cup in 1995 and again in 2019 with coaches put in charge less than 12 months before the tournament.
The last time the Wallabies won the World Cup, in 1999, Rod Macqueen had been given the job less than two years before. And Michael Cheika took the Wallabies to the 2015 final within a year of being appointed.
Rugby Australia have made plenty of dumb decisions in the past but this should be the easiest one they have ever had to make.
EDDIE JONES FACING SACK FROM ENGLAND JOB
—Owen Slot, Alex Lowe
Eddie Jones was fighting for survival last night (Monday) with at least one of his senior coaches considering resigning if the Australian remains as head coach.
The RFU review panel met yesterday (Monday) to analyse England’s disappointing performances in the autumn international series.
The big decision it faces is whether Jones should remain in his job. Warren Gatland, who was considered the frontrunner to replace Jones if he were to be sacked, returned to the role of Wales head coach yesterday (Monday).
It is understood that if Jones stays, the fallout will be significant among his staff, with one of his top coaches already looking at a future elsewhere and others likely to go too. The levels of frustration and dissatisfaction around Jones’s England camp are so extreme that coaches, medics and analysts have left at an unprecedented rate since the Australian took over seven years ago.
Jones lost three more employees over the autumn: Henry Mander, an analyst who left just before the international series, Richard Tingay, the team doctor who left just after it, and Danny Kerry, the coaching guru who led the England women’s hockey team to their gold medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016. Kerry and Tingay remain as RFU employees but have almost completely cut their ties with the senior England team.
In every case, Jones’s tough management style has been cited as a key reason for the departures.
Yesterday’s match at Twickenham was one of the toughest I’ve experienced as an England fan.
— Will Greenwood (@WillGreenwood) November 27, 2022
In 2022 alone, we’ve played 13 and won 5…
How do England and Eddie Jones turn this around ahead of the World Cup next year?
Full review here 👉 https://t.co/iaIc70ovCbpic.twitter.com/28jwk4h0qc
With only nine months to go until the start of the Rugby World Cup, the RFU has a difficult decision to make on the head coach’s future. Jones is contracted to stay until the end of the tournament in France next year. Firing him now and changing the head coach so close to the World Cup is a risk.
However, after England won only one of their four internationals in the November series, Jones has the team delivering consistently their worst results since he took over. The RFU will also therefore be taking a big chance if it elects to stick with him.
The RFU panel will put its recommendation to the RFU board today (Tuesday). An announcement will then follow either later today (Tuesday) or tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.
Jones’s assistant coaches, Matt Proudfoot, Martin Gleeson and Richard Cockerill, all had a meeting with the RFU at Twickenham yesterday (Monday) afternoon, leaving together at 5pm.
Part of the decision will rest on the alternative solutions. Gatland, who has coached Wales at the past three World Cups, had appeared to be a good one, but the Welsh Rugby Union announced yesterday (Monday) that it had hired Gatland as its own emergency solution.
The structure around the England team has become a crumbling edifice. If Bill Sweeney, the RFU chief executive, and his board stick with Jones, the gamble that they take is that the implosion will not continue.
WHO TAKES OVER IF JONES GOES?
There had been speculation Gatland might be appointed on a short-term deal.
That ended, however, when it was announced on Monday the New Zealander would be returning for a second spell as Wales coach after a dismal run of results under his successor and compatriot Wayne Pivac.
Former England captain Steve Borthwick, the coach of Premiership champions Leicester is now the leading contender.
But if Borthwick, previously an assistant to Jones, cannot be prized away from the Tigers or Crusaders coach Scott Robertson lured from New Zealand before the World Cup, the RFU could appoint current performance director Conor O’Shea as England coach on an interim basis.
That former Harlequins and Italy coach O’Shea is understood to be a member of the review panel could raise issues over a conflict of interest should he succeed Jones.
But it may also help balance the books, with the cost of paying off Jones’ deal estimated at £700,000 ($853,000) a figure that could rise to £1 million if his staff leave as well.
This story originally appeared in The Times
Originally published as Rugby news: Why Wallabies must sign Eddie Jones after being sacked by England
Channel 10 sacks Wallabies legend after 10-year partnership
He has been the face of sport at Channel 10 for over a decade, but the Wallabies legend’s time as the network’s chief sports presenter has come to an end.
Future Olympians! Try-fectas, close calls in Next Gen 7s battles
There were blowouts, close calls, a hot boot and multiple try-fectas in the opening round of the Next Gen Sevens rugby series in Sydney. Stars, great photos and Rd 1 result wrap.