Another hammering for Eddie will test his revered status in Japan

Eddie Jones’ return to the Japanese job was similar to his return to the Wallabies’ gig: a first-up hammering. The Brave Blossoms were beaten 52-17 in Tokyo on Saturday, about 12 months after the Wallabies were smashed 43-12 by South Africa in Pretoria.

To put it into context, the England-Japan result at the Rugby World Cup last year was 34-12: far more competitive. Jones, of course, will get plenty of leeway in Japan, and there’ll be plenty of chat about building towards the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

Eddie Jones’ tenure with Japan opened in similar fashion to his return to the Wallabies.Credit: Getty Images

But it would be a stretch to say he is universally revered in Japan, especially by the cohort of Kiwi coaches who run the top clubs in Japan Rugby League One.

They have worked hard to enhance the reputation of the JRLO, which could easily be trashed if Jones cops a number of heavy losses in the name of experimentation.

2. Brumbies’ loss put into perspective

The Blues’ 41-10 demolition of the Chiefs in Saturday’s Super Rugby decider was far more one-sided than the Brumbies’ loss in the semi-final. The simple fact is that the Blues are a very good team, and they’ve thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the competition.

On the evidence of the weekend, the Blues would probably beat Wales at Eden Park: the brutality they’ve brought to Super Rugby Pacific this year has raised the bar for everyone.

Some Brumbies players didn’t have their best games in the semi-final: we now know that doesn’t make you a dud player.

3. Dan McKellar would give the Waratahs instant credibility

The former Brumbies coach has been unceremoniously dumped by Leicester after just one season, with the English heavyweights displaying a football-like impatience in the boardroom. Rugby Australia shouldn’t waste any time asking what his plans are, because the Waratahs are in dire need of a coach who knows the Australian playing group and who could hit the ground running.

Dan McKellar has been dumped by Leicester and Rugby Australia should waste no time in bringing him home.Credit: Getty

McKellar, of course, is a proud Queenslander but the timing is absolutely perfect and the Waratahs would benefit immensely from the edge and structure he would bring.

Super Rugby Pacific has just been won by the team with the nastiest forwards and most effective set-piece: this is exactly the currency McKellar trades in.

4. Welsh woes started at the scrum

Wales were predictably beaten 41-13 by South Africa in London on Saturday after playing little to no rugby in their own half.

Their insistence on putting the ball into the skies off No.9 and No.10 means the Wallabies will have to think long and hard about what they want from their fullback in next month’s two-Test series.

The Wallabies will see the Welsh scrum as an area they can exploit in next month’s Tests.Credit: AP

However, the main lesson from the game was the weakness of the Welsh scrum, particularly on their tighthead side. Of course, the Springboks are an immense scrummaging unit, but the Welsh were never competitive at the set-piece and new Wallabies guru Mike Cron will like his chances of getting the Wallabies’ scrum to be an effective platform to launch from in Sydney and Melbourne next month.

5. TMO nightmare returns at Twickenham

The Wales-South Africa game was error-strewn in itself, but the pace was slowed down even further by the repeated use of the TMO to check possible foul play. Here’s the issue with that (apart from putting the crowd to sleep): it was clear that the referee, the assistant referee and the TMO couldn’t even agree on what they were seeing.

This was particularly true of the yellow card handed out to Springboks fullback Aphelele Fassi, who was shown a yellow card for collecting Welsh flanker Taine Plumtree with his boot as he was taking a high ball. That, of course, shows the stupidity of using video replays for subjective decisions: if the match officials can’t agree on whether it was foul play, why on earth are we wasting minutes on watching multiple replays from different angles? It’s a blight on the game, especially as the same officials actually missed a blatant forward pass for the Springboks’ third try.

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