Eddie the insider sniffs a conspiracy against England

That’s the trouble with having an Australian coaching England. He knows just where to prod us.

England coach Eddie Jones talks after arriving at Brisbane airport.

That’s the trouble with having an Australian coaching England. He knows just where to prod us. First, there was the implied threat of English violence, as Eddie Jones invoked the Bodyline series. Then, the counterpunch: the Battle of Ballymore.

If Australians felt aggrieved and wounded at Douglas Jardine’s “unsportsmanlike” tactics in the 1932-33 Ashes cricket series, then it’s safe to assume that Englishmen felt similarly violated by Australia’s actions in the Battle of Ballymore, the second Test in Brisbane of the 1975 rugby union series.

Indeed, it wasn’t only Englishmen who were offended by Australia’s tactic of initiating an all-in brawl right from the kick-off.

“We have won the series but lost the respect of the rugby world,” former Wallaby prop Eric Tweedale wrote to the then president of the Australian Rugby Union, Bill McLaughlin.

It was what followed then that might have some relevance today. In the fallout from the Ballymore Test, Australian officials placed so many restrictions on their own national coach, Dave Brockhoff and his so-called “step forward” tactics, that the Wallabies were like lambs when beaten in three of the four Tests on the spring tour the following December.

Who knows what purpose Jones had in harking back 40 years in response to a question that the first Test (at Suncorp Stadium on June 11) was always a huge one, and could it swing the momentum of the series?

“It’s the old Battle of Ballymore, isn’t it,” Jones said.

“The first Test sets the tone for the rest of the series. We see that as an opportunity to put down a marker in that first Test.

“Suncorp has been a favourite ground for Australia but they’ve lost a couple of games there recently.”

Notwithstanding that the Ballymore Test of 1975 was the last in the series, not the first, Jones was signalling — right from the start — his belief that the Australians, under coach Michael Cheika, are now playing a highly confrontational game.

“The one thing I understand is that the Australians are going to be very physical and very aggressive,” he said. “Everything that’s done around the game is going to be co-ordinated and all co-ordinated to help Australia win. So we’ve got to be good enough to control the things we can control and not worry about the things we can’t control and be prepared to play a very physical, aggressive rugby.”

The conspiracy is all-pervasive and incredibly thorough. Even the Customs officers who subjected Jones to a search on his arrival yesterday have been seconded to the “Make Life Miserable to the Poms” campaign, apparently. And was Jones suggesting the Australian media was somehow also complicit in the “co-ordinated” approach to help the Wallabies win?

“That always happens,” he said to the assembled media “You guys should know. You’re always part of it. It’s well done here, very well done here.”

Then, apparently satisfied that he had alerted Australian readers to the perfidy of its media, Jones ironically turned his attention to a subject that, as it happened, was dominating the local media — State of Origin.

Not Wednesday’s game, which had taken place while he had been en route from Heathrow, but the seven games from 2012 to 2014 in which Ben Te’o had been involved. The New Zealand-born centre had played for the Maroons before signing to play rugby union for Leinster, where he was mentored by Reds’ current co-coach Matt O’Connor. Then, looking to take advantage of his mother’s English heritage, he signed last December with Worcester. It didn’t take Jones long to decide that such a player could prove very useful in the England midfield.

“Well, having coached a lot of rugby league guys and knowing that if you can play State of Origin successfully, you can be successful in Test rugby, he’s got the pedigree to be successful. Secondly, he’s got a skill set that’s very suited to playing 12 in international rugby. He can take the ball through the line, and he can pass before the line and he’s a very good and robust defender.”

Despite the fact that Te’o has not yet trained with the England side, Jones appears to have no qualms about using him in the first Test.

It could be said that Jones was rushing him. Then again, as he told The Australian in an interview just before departure: “If he’s ready to play, I’m not rushing him.”