Wallabies news 2023: Eddie Jones’ Bledisloe prediction shows how deluded Australia are

The Wallabies have lost the plot and Eddie Jones looks like he needs comforting. And after Saturday’s dismal defeat to Argentina, the fans are getting angry.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – JULY 15: Wallabies Coach Eddie Jones looks on during The Rugby Championship match between the Australia Wallabies and Argentina at CommBank Stadium on July 15, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

Eddie Jones says he needs a doctor to mend the woeful Wallabies’ broken hearts after their gut-wrenching last-minute defeat to Argentina.

But it might be the Wallabies coach who needs comforting as the magnitude of what he’s trying to do becomes apparent.

No-one said this was going to be an easy job, but in the aftermath of yet another disastrous performance by the Wallabies, where they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, Jones is already pleading with supporters not to give up on his misfiring team.

Jed Holloway, Richie Arnold and Carter Gordon look dejected. Picture: Getty

Despite everything pointing to a squad in disarray and without a clue how to fix things, Jones doubled down on his belief the Wallabies can win this year’s World Cup.

“I’m 100 per cent confident,” he said.

“At the moment, it seems like we‘re miles away from where we need to be. But all this is going to make us harder and more hungry to get it right.

“We‘re a team that needs to change. We know that. And that’s the reason I’m here in the job. It needs to change. We’re not seeing the change in terms of results at the moment, but we’ll see that.”

In a different life, Jones would have made a great snake oil salesman because he’s a master of telling people what they want to hear rather than what they see with their own eyes.

Jones even made an astonishing prediction – claiming his side were about to spring a major surprise in the upcoming Bledisloe Cup matches against New Zealand.

Wallabies coach Eddie Jones is showing signs of serious delusion. Picture: Getty

It’s been two decades since the Wallabies held the Bledisloe Cup and on the evidence so far this season, the wait to get it back could stretch for a century.

But not according to Jones, whose team face the All Blacks in Melbourne in a fortnight, then again in New Zealand a week after.

“While it seems like it‘s doom and gloom at the moment, beating inside here is a fair bit of optimism that we’ll be able to change fairly quickly in the next couple of weeks,” Jones said.

“If I was the All Blacks, I’d look out.”

A natural optimist and showman, Jones almost always has a funny one-liner ready to roll out after every situation but talking up his team’s chances of winning the sport’s biggest trophies just sounds like sheer fantasy.

Pumas coach Michael Cheika (C) shakes hands with Eddie Jones. Picture: Getty

The furious response on social media indicates that long-suffering Wallabies fans aren’t laughing at his wisecracks, with the internet lighting up with disgruntled supporters savaging the team’s performance after Saturday’s 34-31 loss to Michael Cheika’s Pumas.

“Same old useless wallabies!! They have no hope of winning World Cup!!” CJ wrote on the comments section of this masthead.

Another reader, calling themselves The Real NuName, chipped in with: “Furthermore, I think they should stop calling themselves the Wallabies. Its giving the animal a bad name. Perhaps change their mascot to The Dreamers? Any other names?”

Jones was recruited to the job earlier this year to get the Wallabies World Cup campaign back on track after three years of terrible results under his predecessor Dave Rennie.

It’s still early days and he’s just two matches but there’s no sign of any improvement yet.

Last weekend, the Wallabies were thrashed by a weakened South African outfit. On Saturday they went down to Argentina, conceding a try in the last minute after snatching the lead with two late meat pies of their own.

Argentina's Juan Martin Gonzalez (bottom C) scores the matchwinning try. Picture: AFP

It was cruel – and Jones was spotted exploding with anger in the press box – but the Wallabies deserved no less after making so many errors and giving away so many penalties through ill-discipline.

Jones managed to compose himself by the time he arrived at his mandatory post-match press conference but his calls to arms fell on deaf ears.

Last week, he manufactured a dispute with a South African journalist, but this time he went on a charm offensive, describing the Wallabies as a work in progress that will miraculously come together just in time for the World Cup, starting in less than eight weeks.

“We’re a bit like a broken car. It’s like having a Datsun 1200,” he said.

“I remember my first car was a Datsun 1200. You’d fix the handbrake and the next day the windscreen wipers would break, and we‘re a bit like that moment.

“Last week our set-piece wasn’t good. This week our set-piece was good. Last week, we didn‘t attack. This week we did attack, but our decision-making around the ball was poor.

The Wallabies look a long way off being a team that can compete for the World Cup this year. Picture: Getty

“This is a bit of a process we‘ve got to go through. As painful as it is and as hard as it is, and it seems like where we want to be, the team we are today is a long way from the team we want to be tomorrow, but you know we’ll keep working on it and we’ll get it right.”

Optimism is an admirable trait and Wallabies fans have it in bucket loads.

How else could they keep turning up in the hope things will return to the glory days when all the signs suggest otherwise.

Jones knows how loyal Australian fans are, which is why he’s always saying the glass is half full, and there is still a tiny glimmer of hope he’s right and the Wallabies can at least make the World Cup semi-finals, only because they have a soft draw.

But deep down, Jones knows how badly out of shape his team is right now, after dropping to eighth in the world rankings.

Mark Nawaqanitawase was a bright spot for the Wallabies. Picture: AFP

And in searching for a silver lining, he also let slip that the Wallabies’ best chance of turning things around in a hurry is if they get a lucky break.

“There was probably no one more despondent than me. I probably ruined three radios in the coach‘s box. But I’m also realistic,” he said.

“It only takes one moment in a game to change a team.

“Sometimes you‘re not sure when that’s going to come but if you keep working hard and keep working diligently and you work on the right things, you get that change.

“The thing that really encouraged me is the diligence of the players. They want to change, they want to be better, they want to be fine ambassadors for Australian Rugby but at the moment it‘s just not happening, but it will.

Rob Leota reacts during shock defeat to Argentina. Picture: Getty

“(No-one is) doing handstands. We’re obviously not happy. But in a lot of ways, in this period, this isn‘t about rankings, it’s about getting ready for the World Cup.

“I‘ve come here to get the team ready for the World Cup. Ideally, we would have won every game we played. But that hasn’t happened and it mightn’t happen. But we’re getting the team ready for the World Cup.

“It was always going to be difficult. If you’ve been consistently unsuccessful for a period of time, which the results show that, then you‘re not going to go and everything (immediately).

“We‘re trying to change the team, and we’re also trying to change the way we play. So, we’ve sort of double-whammied this.

“I‘m quite happy to accept that we’re not where we should be. But, I’m also quite happy to tell you that I think we’re on the right track and we’ll get there.”