Former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones on Max Jorgensen: ‘He’s everything you want in a rugby player’

Former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones says Rugby Australia must do everything it can to keep ‘special talent’ Max Jorgensen and emphatically dismissed there was World Cup spending ‘without approval’.

Eddie Jones says Rugby Australia must keep Max Jorgensen in the game.

Former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has dubbed Wallaby young gun Max Jorgensen a “special talent” and says Rugby Australia should do everything in their power to keep the teen in the 15-man code.

The Australian this week revealed both the Roosters and RA were preparing offers for the 19 year old Waratah who has been labelled as one of the game’s most promising players.

“He’s a great, great kid, he works really hard, he’s everything you want in a rugby player,” Jones said. “I just hope rugby and I’m sure Rugby Australia is aware of how special a talent he is. You want to build your team around that sort of player.”

In one of his first interviews since resigning from the Wallabies top job, after a devastating early World Cup exit, Jones also dismissed the suggestion there was spending without “approval” in France.

RA recently revealed the World Cup budget blew out by $2.6 million of “unapproved expenses”.

Jones emphatically denied this. “Any organisation sets a limit of what to approve, and I can tell you everything we did was approved,” Jones told The Australian.

“If someone is actually suggesting we are going and spending $2m without approval – I mean it just doesn’t happen without approval, I can tell you everything was approved.

“I wasn’t actually involved in who approves it – but ultimately everything is approved by the CEO.”

Max Jorgensen is considered one of the finest talents in the game and would be a monster coup for the Roosters and NRL.

CEO Phil Waugh has previously declined to single out and blame Jones for the spend. Following the disastrous tournament, Jones resigned 10-months into a five-year contract.

While the World Cup campaign in France was full of disappointment, Jones said a shining light was Jorgensen. He had high praise for the teen and in the brief time he was in the Wallabies camp he was impressed by his work ethic and ability.

Jones was unsurprised that the Roosters were chasing the talented back.

The Weekend Australian understands NRL powerhouse club have been floating a figure of $1.8 million, $850,000 in the first year and $950,000 in the second, to Jorgensen’s camp, while RA are preparing to offer around $1m less over two years.

In France Jones said he had considered debuting Jorgensen in the game against Wales but with a number of senior players out he didn’t want to throw him into the fire.

Jorgensen didn’t get the chance to debut at the World Cup because of a “freak” injury he sustained in training – twisting his ankle attempting to catch a ball and sustaining a spiral fracture – and missed out on playing against Portugal. “But he’ll get a lot more opportunities,” Jones said.

Jorgensen is off contract at the end of 2024 but has spoken of his desire to represent Australia in the British and Irish Lions next year, the World Cup and the Olympics in Los Angeles. Jones said it was now time for RA to show Jorgensen how much they value and want him in their future.

“Rugby Australia has got to show how much they care for him, how much they want him,” Jones said. “There is the money – and then there is the amount of care your employee shows you – and how you get that balance right is the key to good retention of talent and recruitment.”

Jones, who knows Max’s father Peter Jorgensen, who played for Randwick, the Wallabies as well league for the Panthers and the Roosters, believes the teen is a natural rugby talent.

“I think some players are born to be league players while I think his father was a guy that played rugby, but he was born to be a league player,” Jones said.

“Whereas, you know rugby is more of a tactical game. I’m not trying to decry rugby league at all. But I think Max would prefer to play rugby but yeah the [pay] gap is so big between the offers then, I think that then the gap becomes more important than the interest. The job of rugby is to close the gap with that without being silly – and I think if they can do that then you know Max would probably stay in rugby.”

Jorgensen is out of Saturday’s clash against Blues again with an injury.

Jones declined to be drawn into Australia’s World Cup review findings – he is now the head coach of Japan’s Brave Blossoms. He was repeatedly linked to the job during Australia’s World Cup campaign.

One of 23 recommendations made to RA following the external review was more transparency around player selections. Another recommendation was an overhaul of the high-performance unit – which has already been completed on high performance consultant David Nucifora’s advice.

When asked about the review Jones said; “I just laughed … it’s just a bit of comedy relief isn’t it? You know Matty Johns does it for rugby league and then we do this in public in rugby …,” Jones said.

Jones – who had repeatedly called for Australia’s high performance to centralise – said he has been taking note of the state of the domestic Australian competition from afar. He has been impressed by the lift in performance.

“I’m glad to see the Australian Super Rugby sides performing better,” Jones said. “I think that’s a really positive thing. Yeah. And some of the young talent is starting to come through and just being a bit more consistent”.

“You know, even watching a guy like Harry Wilson now, he’s probably, always been on the cusp of being a good, really good player. But now he’s playing with a bit more consistency. So I think that’s good. I think at some stage the financial reality of the supporting five teams is going to be difficult for Australia to sustain.”

“There’s an inevitably about that and it’s how you go about that. They had one go with the Force and they didn’t get it right at all. Next time they’ve got to get it right, running the business of rugby and that’s a skill in itself.”