Bledisloe Cup 2023: Eddie Jones must ditch ‘nice guy’ persona ahead of World Cup selection
It’s time for Eddie Jones to ditch the nice guy routine and reveal his cold-blooded true colours to spare the Wallabies from becoming a total laughing stock at the World Cup.
Everyone’s new BFF since he returned to the Wallabies, it’s time for Eddie Jones to ditch the nice guy routine and revert to his ruthless alter ego when he announces the Australian squad for the Rugby World Cup in France.
A natural showman with a razor-sharp wit, Jones has done a miraculous job diverting everyone’s attention from the trainwreck that Australian rugby has become.
His one-man act has kept rugby in the spotlight all year long, but like all stand-up entertainers, Jones needs some fresh material to keep his audience from dozing off.
And that means getting the Wallabies to start winning again because after four straight defeats, including Saturday’s heartbreaking 23-20 loss to New Zealand, his best gags are all losing their punchline.
With Australia’s World Cup campaign kicking off September 9 against Georgia at the Stade de France in Paris, it’s now time for Jones to reveal his true colours - starting with Thursday’s squad announcement.
This is not the time for sentiment.
One of rugby’s shrewdest coaches, Jones needs to be as cold-blooded as he always has been in the past because the Wallabies just don’t have any other options if they want to contend for the title.
Ranked eighth in the world and already facing a mounting injury toll, the Wallabies have been a shambles for years, spared from becoming a total laughing stock only because of the eternal optimism of their long-suffering followers.
The only reason they are given a glimmer of hope of going deep in France is because of a lopsided draw that is tilted heavily in their favour.
But to capitalise on that, Jones needs to be bold and unapologetic because the Wallabies don’t stand a chance if they keep dishing up the same old rubbish and lame excuses.
Until now, Jones has been everyone’s best mate, giving all his players a fair crack to press their claims, both in matches and at training.
The result has been four straight losses so it’s time to get real.
With squad sizes for the World Cup restricted to 33 players, Jones can’t afford to waste any more time on players he doesn’t think are up to the job, no matter what they might have done in the past.
For too long, the Wallaby selectors have kept picking players on reputation who have talked a good game but rarely delivered when it matters.
It’s complete madness to think that the same players who have been losing for years can suddenly start winning and explains why the Wallabies trophy cabinet is as empty as their stands at most of their matches.
That has to end right now, and thankfully there are enough signs to suggest Jones has the guts to make the overdue changes that are needed right now.
A keen follower of rugby league, Jones saw the rewards that Billy Slater got for rewarding current form over past form in this year’s State of Origin.
It’s not rocket science and he saw with his own eyes what happens when he introduced some much needed fresh blood into Wallabies, giving youngsters like Mark Nawaqanitawase, Tate McDermott, Carter Gordon, Tom Hooper and Angus Bell regular starting spots.
They didn’t beat the All Blacks but they did go close and it’s just the circuit-breaker the Wallabies need heading into the World Cup.
Like any poker player trying to bluff their way through a card game - and Jones is keeping his masterplan a secret for now - everyone has to reveal their hand at some time, and for Jones that starts with this week’s selection announcement.
His first big call should be to choose McDermott as his skipper because it’s time to be bold
WALLABIES’ GLIMMER OF HOPE
Maybe, just maybe, there’s a glimmer of hope for the Wallabies after all.
And it’s not because they came close to beating the All Blacks in New Zealand just seven days after getting humiliated at home.
It was an improved performance but it was still a loss and if ever the Wallabies think that losing to the All Blacks is a good result then they should give the game up.
Thankfully, the Wallabies aren’t at that point yet – and that’s the straw which Wallabies fans can clutch on to.
If the first step to solving a problem is owning up to it, perhaps the Wallabies have turned the corner.
For too long, the usual backslappers keep telling the Wallabies how wonderful they are, but Eddie Jones and his players have stopped listening and are calling things as they really are.
“It‘s no good mate,” Jones growled. “It’s a bad feeling. We should have won that game.
Jones is a master of spin but he also knows when to call a spade a spade.
He knows Saturday’s 23-20 loss to the All Blacks in Dunedin was by far the best performance the Wallabies have produced since he replaced the ineffective Dave Rennie.
And he knows that with a highly favourable draw the Wallabies have genuine hope of making a deep run at the World Cup, starting in France next month.
But after years of false alarms, he also knows that talking things up after another close defeat is fool’s gold.
“I think we‘re going in the right direction and there’s a lot for us to be positive about but we also realise that there’s a lot of hard work for us to do,” he said.
“While we haven‘t treated this tournament as a pre-season, we’re building a team for the World Cup.”
Jones has already taken some big gambles that his predecessor failed to that are starting to pay off.
He’s cleared out some of the older players and brought in some fresher legs, who have already impressed, including halfback Tate McDermott, who did a great job captaining the side on the weekend and should lead the Wallabies at the World Cup.
The key, according to Jones, is for his younger players to bottle the disappointment from losing to New Zealand and never let it happen again.
“As much as I hate New Zealand rugby I have great admiration for the way that they keep at it,” Jones said.
“They keep playing. They keep doing the things they‘re good at. They stay hard in the contest. They keep going.
“For us, you know, we don‘t want to forget that feeling. That’s a really important feeling we had because we’ve got a devastated group of men in there, but if we learn from it is going to be the most potent lesson. It’s going to be more than a PhD from the University of Otago.”
Despite his scathing appraisal about the Wallabies loss to New Zealand, Jones still believes they can contend at this year’s World Cup.
They have one more warm-up match, again France later this month, before their four pool games – against Georgia, Fiji, Wales and Portugal.
If they win their group, as expected, they are likely to play Argentina in the quarter-finals before meeting one of the big boys in the semis.
“I couldn‘t say I’m happy. Four losses are four losses,” Jones said.
“But are we making progress? Sometimes the results don‘t reflect what you’re actually doing. And that’s hard for people to understand.
“I think we‘re definitely moving in the right direction but we’ve got to win games.
“We‘ve got one more game against France, which is obviously a warm up game. And then we’ve got four games we need to win and then you need to win the fifth.
“Then it’s a flip of the coin at the Stade de France at 9pm at night.”
The Wallabies 33-man squad for the World Cup will be announced on Thursday.
McDermott also said none of the players were pleased because it was a closer loss than last weekend.
“We’ve got to be realistic with where we are,” he said.
“In the dressing room, the boys are gutted. We’re working bloody hard.
“We’re not seeing much red at the moment but what we are seeing are small areas of our game growing and growing quickly.”
In his on-field interview, McDermott pleaded with Wallabies fans to stay patient.
“We’re obviously gutted. We put ourselves in a position to win it, we were just chasing our tails that whole second half.
“I’m disappointed with our result but I’m proud of that effort. Obviously not happy with it but from where we were last week to where we are now, it’s a massive step up.
We’re trending in the right direction. It’s frustrating hearing that, particularly for the guys back home, it must drive your head in, but we truly believe what we’re doing, particularly in the attack space, is going to work a treat for us in the future. We’ve just got to continue to be hard on ourselves and hold the ball in that space.”
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