Rugby Australia back Eddie Jones to continue as coach despite World Cup embarrassment

Wallabies coach Eddie Jones Australia says he accepts full responsibility for Australia’s World Cup humiliation, but his job is safe, JULIAN LINDEN explains why.

Eddie Jones will retain his job as coach of Australia despite the World Cup failure. Picture: Getty Images

Rugby Australia says it has no intention of sacking Eddie Jones even if the Wallabies are bundled out of the World Cup before the knockout stages.

Jones has accepted full responsibility for the Wallabies poor showing at the World Cup, which has left them on the brink of being eliminated after the pool stage.

The only way the Wallabies can make the quarter-finals is if Portugal beat Fiji next week but Waugh said Jones’ job was safe no matter what happens.

Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh said firing Jones was not a consideration.

“We’re committed to Eddie,” he said.

“This is not so much around chopping and changing coaches as it is around actually just fixing the system. It’s pretty evident when we lose a couple of players, the depth of the player that we’re bringing through is not necessarily up to it.

“And you’re not going to win World Cups or win international games if you don’t have that depth and system supporting the national team.”

Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh has backed Eddie Jones. Picture: Getty Images

Waugh, who played under Jones when he was coach of the Wallabies team that made the 2003 World Cup final, did not sugar-coat his disappointment at the team’s performances in France.

While the Wallabies posted 20-point wins over Georgia and Portugal, losses to Fiji and Wales left them staring down the barrel of their earliest ever exit from the game’s showpiece tournament.

“We came here with a lot of hope and optimism and we sit here now, everything is out of our hands and we’ve got to pray that Portugal gets up against Fiji next week,” Waugh said.

“A lot of people spent a lot of money to come over here and support the Wallabies and they came here hoping to win the World Cup, and that was certainly our expectation or our commitment.”

Eddie Jones will retain his job as coach of Australia despite the World Cup failure. Picture: Getty Images

Jones has copped the brunt of criticism after making wholesale changes to the team that the previous coach Dave Rennie had assembled.

His detractors said he gave the Wallabies no chance of doing well because he made so many late changes but Jones said it was necessary to start blooding players now so they can be at their peak when Australia hosts the next World Cup in 2027.

“I’d much prefer to talk about the disappointment of not performing to where we’d like rather than the excuses that we’re building for 2027,” Waugh said. “I just don’t think that washes.”

Waugh does agree with Jones that Rugby Australia needs a complete overhaul, including a switch away from a federated model to a centralised system and laying more high qualify matches.

“One piece that’s becoming more evident is we just don’t play enough rugby, we don‘t play enough competitive rugby,” Waugh said.

“Super Rugby is pretty condensed and then if you‘re not playing test rugby, then is the next level enough pressure to drive better performances?

“This is not just an Australian challenge. I think it‘s going to become more and more of a regional challenge and also a challenge to New Zealand. So we need to get really creative around how we think about scheduling but also the competitiveness in the north.”

Originally published as Rugby Australia back Eddie Jones to continue as coach despite World Cup embarrassment