‘Show some respect’: Jones lashes out at reporter after Wallabies suffer horror 43-12 loss to Springboks

Pretoria: Eddie Jones was involved in a heated verbal altercation with a South African reporter after the Wallabies suffered a nightmare 43-12 defeat to the Springboks on Saturday night that the new Australian coach said felt worse than a 92-3 Super Rugby defeat here 16 years ago.

The return of Jones as Wallabies coach started in disastrous fashion against a Springboks side that rested a dozen of its best players.

A 17-5 half-time deficit became much worse for Australia as the men in gold failed to end a 60-year hoodoo in Pretoria following a six-tries-to-two thrashing in their Rugby Championship opener.

It was the Wallabies’ second-heaviest defeat to South Africa in Pretoria and worst loss to the Springboks since 2008.

After months of meticulous planning to get this Wallabies side as sharp as possible for their first Test of the year, things unravelled rapidly at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in front of 50,089 predominantly Springboks fans.

Rugby Australia officials made the bold call to sack Dave Rennie in January and bring in Eddie Jones immediately.Credit: Reuters

Jones made no excuses for the defeat and is adamant the Wallabies can rebound quickly – their next Test is against Argentina on Saturday in Sydney – but took offence at a question from a local journalist afterwards.

The reporter asked: “Eddie, you expressed your disappointment in the week that you weren’t playing the first-choice Springboks side. Is that a bit of relief now?”

Before Australia left for South Africa, Jones said he hoped the Springboks would pick their best team. It turns out they did not, instead sending more than a dozen players early to New Zealand for their Test against the All Blacks next week.

“South Africans are good at winning. You don’t have to be a smartarse mate,” Jones said at his press conference.

“We were well and truly beaten today by a Springboks side that old mate is calling the B-team, right? I never knew there was a Springboks side that was called the B-team.”

After the press conference, Jones walked towards the reporter and berated him.

“You don’t have to be a smartarse mate,” Jones said again. “You should have more respect mate. I never said that mate. I said we always want to play the best. Show some respect.”

Jones has only had the best part of two weeks with his entire Wallabies squad and it showed as they were outclassed in almost every facet of the game.

Of course, there will be growing pains, but this opening examination was quite the reality check.

“We were outplayed everywhere,” Jones said. “We got beaten at the set-piece, got beaten at the gain-line, got beaten in the air.

South Africa’s Marvin Orie catches the ball during a line out for the Rugby Championship test match against Australia.Credit: AP

“The only positive from the game was the first 20 minutes, where we tried to play with a bit of pace, we tried to shift turnover ball and we looked dangerous. We weren’t able to sustain that effort.

Suliasi Vunivalu in action for the Wallabies.Credit: AP

“Really disappointing. No excuses. We’ve got a realistic appraisal of where we are.”

Pretoria hasn’t been a happy place for Jones, who coached the Queensland Reds in a famous 92-3 defeat in 2007.

Asked where this loss ranked from his games in Pretoria, Jones replied, “worst one”. “We can read a lot into it and it’s not good reading,” he said.

Suliasi Vunivalu, in his first run-on start, was kept relatively quiet. The winger had minimal chances in open space, made 23 metres from four carries and sat out the last 10 minutes of the match due to a yellow card.

“He had some good parts,” Jones said. “When you’re playing off scarce possession and you’re playing against a team that is dominating territory … I’d never take too much into consideration (about) their performance.”

Australia were quick to silence a loud crowd in Pretoria when Marika Koroibete flew into fifth gear down the left wing to score a sensational five-pointer in the eighth minute that started from a lovely long pass courtesy of Quade Cooper.

That was as good as it got.

It was all one-way traffic for the remainder of the match as Kurt-Lee Arendse gave the home side a 10-5 lead before Vunivalu dived helplessly out wide to try and stop a three-on-two overlap on the blindside of a scrum.

Reece Hodge left eight points out on the field in the first half – he missed a conversion and two long-range penalties – as the Springboks gathered momentum and punished a Wallabies outfit who looked to be struggling at altitude.

When debutant Tom Hooper left the field in the 32nd minute with a shoulder injury, the Wallabies trailed 17-5 and were getting bashed at the breakdown.

Australia needed a response in the second half but weren’t helped when Len Ikitau, who had practised his exit kicks all week, booted out on the full.

Moments later, Arendse crashed over for his third try down the left edge before Australia’s woes were compounded with another couple of tries and Dave Porecki copped a yellow card.

Bench players Zane Zonggorr, Richie Arnold and Carter Gordon all made it onto the field for their debuts, with the latter throwing a forward pass.

Gordon, however, scored a long-range try after the full-time siren to get the Wallabies into double digits on a sobering night in enemy territory.

“Most of the areas in the game we lost,” said Wallabies co-captain James Slipper. “We weren’t good enough. We started well but when we lost momentum and the pressure came on we didn’t deal with it enough.”

Before the match, Jones told Wallabies fans this fixture would be “better than the Ashes”.

It was far from that. He has a lot of work to do before the World Cup begins in two months.

Wallaroos bounce back to roll USA in Pacific Four rugby

The Wallaroos have banked their first-ever Pacific Four Series victory with a thumping 58-17 win over the United States, including a hat-trick of tries from winger Maya Stewart.

Playing in Ottawa, Australia coach Jay Tregonning was looking for a response after a 50-0 drubbing by New Zealand to open the four-team tournament and his players responded in style.

Led by the player of the match, prop Eva Karpani, who also scored a double among the nine-try haul, the Wallaroos looked a different side in front of more than 8000 fans at TD Place Stadium.

The Australian forwards laid the platform for the willing attack, with veteran back-rower Grace Hamilton using their rolling maul to post their opening try.

They used the same tactic again seven minutes later with Karpani coming up trumps, with her two tries secured by halftime when the Wallaroos led 27-5.

With the game opening up in the second half, it was the backs’ time to shine through Stewart, Ivana Wong and Georgina Friedrichs, whose try brought up the half century.

It’s the first time since 2010 the Wallaroos have hit 50 points.

Tries for Team USA were scored by lock Evelyn Ashenbrucker and a brace from winger Jennine Detiveaux in an otherwise disappointing performance after downing Australia 16-14 last year.

Australian captain Michaela Leonard hailed the fight in her team after last week’s ugly night against the Black Ferns in Redcliffe.

“The girls have worked really hard this week in actually driving the standards ourselves and expecting better of each other and challenging each other to do better,” Leonard told Stan Sport.

“I think that showed today - turning around from a 50-0 loss isn’t easy, but I think that was true Australian grit.

“It was great out there for the whole 80, the girls didn’t give up and that’s exactly what we’re about as a country and as a team.”

The USA remain winless after a first-round loss to Canada, who the Wallaroos tackle next, also in Ottawa.

Western Force lock Leonard said she wanted to see further improvement from the players against the Canadians, who finished fourth at last year’s Rugby World Cup.

AAP

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