Rugby Championship: Wallabies make five changes to starting team against Argentina
Eddie Jones has reacted savagely to the Wallabies’ loss to South Africa. But his changes against Argentina won’t include a starting spot for one of Australia’s brightest young talents.
Whether he’s talking about rugby, cricket or horse racing, Eddie Jones usually knows the score.
One of the benefits of growing up in rugby, the Wallabies coach doesn’t need to be told that Aussies have a pretty good working knowledge of most sports so don’t like being treated like mugs.
That’s why Jones isn’t even trying to sugar-coat his team’s huge loss to South Africa last weekend.
There were some mitigating circumstances and in the big scheme of things, Jones knows the team’s dismal performance against the Springboks doesn’t matter too much because the Wallabies are building towards the World Cup.
But the former schoolteacher is also smart enough to know that no-one wants to hear excuses anymore because the team’s long-suffering supporters are fed up with losses.
And the only thing they want now is a win.
“We‘re going to fire up on Saturday, there’s no excuse,” Jones said.
“We‘re trying to create a squad that’s capable of winning the World Cup and that wins on Saturday.”
It sounds simple enough, but there’s two problems.
The Pumas are a pretty formidable side, and the Wallabies have forgotten how to win after three years of disastrous results under the previous coach Dave Rennie.
The balancing act for Jones is to end up on the right side of the scoreboard without giving away too many secrets about his World Cup plans.
“Every time you get to game time, it‘s about winning,” Jones said. “But there’s a couple of processes we’ve got.
“We’ve got the process of today, we’ve got the process of tomorrow, so that’s a continually balancing act but obviously Saturday’s the priority.”
The other thing Jones gets is Aussie fans can’t cop players getting pampered, so he’s wielded the axe, making five changes to his starting team against the Pumas.
Co-captain Michael Hooper and blindside flanker Tom Hooper were not considered because of injury but former NRL convert Suliasi Vunivalu, inside centre Reece Hodge and lock Nick Frost were all replaced.
“We’ve got a sort of a rough plan of what we want to do. Our aim is to get to the World Cup in the best position and we’ve got five games to do it,” Jones said.
“We’re obviously a new team, new coaching staff, so just finding out where we’re at.
“We didn‘t have a number in place, but we were always going to make some changes in hopes.”
With the two Hoopers unavailable, Jones has revamped his back row with Fraser McReight starting at open side and flanker, Jed Holloway at blindside and Richie Arnold packing down at lock.
Jones also strengthened his backline with Mark Nawaqanitawa coming on to the right wing and Samu Kerervi back at 12 after recently returning from injury.
But Jones wasn’t reckless. Despite pressure to change his halves, he kept faith in Nic White and veteran playmaker Quade Cooper, resisting calls to promote exciting five-eighth Carter Gordon, who scored a try on debut off the bench last weekend.
Jones knows Gordon is the attacking spark the Wallabies desperately need but that’s why he’s keeping that ace up his sleeve.
“What I don‘t want to do is throw him in,” Jones said.
“I want him to be ready to go. He‘s a great young player, but he’s a young kid at the moment. He’s finding his feet.”
Wallabies team to play Argentina at CommBank Stadium, Sydney on Saturday 15 July, 7:45pm AEST
James Slipper (captain)
David Porecki
Allan Alaalatoa
Richie Arnold
Will Skelton
Jed Holloway
Fraser McReight
Rob Valetini
Nic White
Quade Cooper
Marika Koroibete
Samu Kerevi
Len Ikitau
Mark Nawaqanitawase
Tom Wright
Replacements
Jordan Uelese
Angus Bell
Pone Fa’amausili
Matt Philip
Rob Leota
Josh Kemeny*
Tate McDermott
Carter Gordon
*denotes uncapped
JONES, CHEIKA PREPARE TO SQUARE OFF AGAIN
Frenemies forever, Eddie Jones and Michael Cheika are getting ready to square off again.
Former teammates in their playing days at Randwick, they’ve been butting heads as coaches for years now.
Their clashes, while always civil, can sometimes be better than the matches between their teams when they’re in the mood to trade barbs.
So far this week, it’s all been pretty polite but don’t rule out the chance of fireworks on Saturday when Jones’s Wallabies take on Cheika’s Argentina Pumas.
“I was just thinking about … how fantastic it is for a coach of Argentina and a coach of Australia to come out of the Shute Shield, out of a fairly minor club, Randwick,” Jones said.
“In the international game you‘ve got two coaches coming out of the local competition in Sydney and it shows you the real value of club rugby.
“In Australia, rugby’s been based on club rugby and the more we can do to engender strong club rugby the better.”
Their coaching rivalry started when Cheika took charge of the Wallabies in charge and Jones was given the reins at England.
Jones won all of their head-to-head matches but Cheika got one back last year when he took over as Argentina coach, leading the Pumas to a famous win at Twickenham before Jones got the sack.
Now that Jones is back in charge of Australia, the one thing he knows is that Cheika won’t be given him an easy ride this weekend.
“I‘m still hungry for a few more, don’t worry,“ Cheika said .
“Eddie’s a quality coach and I think that’s why Australia wanted to have him back because he can add a lot to the team here, and I’m sure he will.
“They‘re just in construction like where we’re starting our season too so he’s a high quality coach and you always want to go up against high quality coaches just to test yourself.
“The biggest thing with Eddie is he‘s a competitor and he wants to win and I’m pretty much the same.
“We come from the same place really, just down at Coogee here.
“So that‘s the one thing you know you’re going to get all the time. Styles can change and of course players have got to act that out on the field as well.
“But I thought it was a good call that Australia brought him back and I‘m sure it will be. As long as it’s not when we’re playing against them.”
Jones got outsmarted by Cheika last time they locked horns but he’s expecting a very different game this weekend.
“I think every team he has is a Cheika team. I‘m sure he’ll play differently,” Jones said.
“Like when we played him last year in Twickenham, they kicked the leather off the ball. I mean they kicked 40 times in the game, basically didn‘t play anything over one phase.
“So that’s not Cheika rugby, is it? You know when he is with Australia and the boys talk about, he wanted to run the ball, he said it all the time, he wanted to play Australian style rugby.
“So I think he‘s finding his feet with the Argentinian team and the team they’ve picked doesn’t look like a team that’s going to kick the ball 40 times this week, so it might be a bit different.”
Argentina team
1-Thomas Gallo
2-Julian Montoya (captain)
3-Francisco Gomez Kodela
4-Matias Alemanno
5-Tomas Lavanini
6-Pablo Matera
7-Santiago Grondona
8-Juan Martin Gonzalez
9-Gonzalo Bertranou
10-Santiago Carreras
11-Mateo Carreras
12-Jeronimo De La Fuente
13-Lucio Cinti
14-Rodrigo Isgro
15-Emiliano Boffelli
Replacements:
16-Agustin Creevy
17-Hahuel Tetaz Chaparro
18-Eduardo Bello
19-Lucas Paulos
20-Rodrigo Bruni
21-Lautaro Bazan Velez
22-Nicolas Sanchez
23-Matias Moroni
Add your comment to this story
Lions tensions simmer after bold Wallabies call
The British & Irish Lions just arrived in Australia and tensions are already simmering after Joe Schmidt’s big call about his Wallabies stars ahead of the much-anticipated series opener.
Why Wallabies star stayed loyal despite World Cup snub
He’s now among the best fullbacks in the game, but two years ago Wallabies star Tom Wright was snubbed for the World Cup. He reveals why he stayed loyal to Australian rugby.
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout