Why Eddie Jones is the only man who can revive Australian rugby
Australian rugby needs big profiles, pot-stirrers, opinion makers and shapers, attention grabbers to lead the team after Michael Cheika’s resignation - and I know just the man, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.
Rugby
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- Michael Cheika walks away from Wallabies
- Ratings: ‘Will learn from this flawed campaign’
- Michael Cheika failed the Wallabies
Cricket has its BBL and now Australian rugby union needs a BBE campaign… Bring Back Eddie.
That’s right. Eddie Jones. The coach Australia cast aside 14 years ago because they felt he was a spent force only to have him surge back to prominence with Japan and now England who he has guided to seven consecutive Test victories against Australia.
No further proof than that statistic is needed to ensure he should be top of the Wallabies pecking order to replace Michael Cheika, the only coach in the world who changes his halves pairings more frequently than his underpants.
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Jones may be contracted to England for two more years but what is a contract these days?
The word was out that had England lost to Australia in their World Cup match on Saturday Jones would have been sacked.
Australian rugby needs Jones more than it thinks it does and it would be worth a decent tilt for his services whenever he comes on the market.
Rugby is about to enter the first year of the lifeless four year vacuum between World Cups when the sport bobs along like a fishing boat without an anchor.
A large portion of the Wallaby squad will disappear overseas now. Big name players or crowd magnets are virtually non-existent.
Australian rugby needs big profiles, pot-stirrers, opinion makers and shapers, attention grabbers who make you feel something for or even against them.
If you are going to constipate the game by having reset scrums take up to three minutes out of play as they did on Saturday you need to capture people’s interest by other means than actual play.
Australian rugby is reportedly courting New Zealand’s Dave Rennie but the worry with that appointment is that it would go down the same painful path as fellow Kiwi Robbie Deans, who also coached the Wallabies.
Part of Deans’ problem was not much that people did not like him but they felt nothing for him.
To a lot of rugby fans he was like the piece of lettuce on your lunchtime salad … just there.
That was a failure for the game because, as they say in show business, you need to be loved or loathed but never ignored.
Jones, with his sharp-edged views delivered with theatrical bent under his quirky raised eyebrow, is impossible to ignore.
Wallaby-wise, they’d said he’s never be back but didn’t they say that about Wayne Bennett at the Broncos?
It’s not just a coach Australia is looking for.
If you take a peep at Rugby Australia’s internet site you see they are also chasing a head of marketing, a head of events and operations, a manager for national competitions and a program co-ordinator.
Could the last person out of Australian rugby please turn out the lights?
These are challenging times.
Jones is not everyone’s cup of (green) tea but the moral of his success stretches well beyond the narrow boundaries of his sport.
It proves that in the brutal world of professional sport, a poor season does not necessarily mean you are a poor coach and that it can actually enhance the fibre and wisdom of the man.
When Jones was sacked as Queensland Reds coach in 2007 after winning just two games in a season his career was in tatters.
Now look at him.
Originally published as Why Eddie Jones is the only man who can revive Australian rugby