Wallabies must tell 'em with their shoulders

Eddie Jones’ transition into being a whinging Pom is coming along swimmingly, but has he yet heard of Coventry?

Much has been said of the mind games being played in the build-up to the Wallabies versus England June Test series, making journalists’ lives easier and (to Jones’ credit) the ARU happier with the hype in regard to ticket sales.

But whether there is more going on than merely providing pub debate remains to be seen.

Jones’ right-hand man on his coaching staff, Steve Borthwick, is a logical choice. The two have coached together before so Jones needed a known quantity when thrust into a do-or-die Six Nations series.

Another wise decision was to bring in Johnny Wilkinson as kicking coach. As a World Cup-winning Englishman, his insight and guidance would be invaluable to a young England side now finally beginning to spread their wings.

The recruitment strategy becomes a bit murky when details emerged of Jones’ breakdown guru, former Wallaby George Smith. Jones recruited Smith to the Brumbies in ’99 and he went on become one of Australia’s legendary players. Not even the Kiwis would argue against Smith being in the top three flankers of all time.

Known quantity, yes, national allegiance… not so sure. We’re in uncharted waters here with Jones being the first ever non-English coach, so the debate rages on.

Meanwhile, Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has been doing some tactical recruiting of his own, really flexing the muscles of the eligibility laws he brought about last year.

Leroy Houston is a name that hasn’t been uttered in Australian rugby circles for a good while, and most people would have thought they’d seen the last of James Horwill with any type of Aussie jersey on. Both players have fewer than 60 Test caps, therefore they are only eligible for selection by signing with an Australian Super Rugby side for more than two years.

Both players have been lauded by their English club teammates for their performance in the northern hemisphere, but one has to wonder whether Cheika is luring them back for their knowledge of the English game, as well as just their skillset.

When I was in the midst of my Year 10 rugby season, I was involved in a particularly niggly match. There was a huge amount of sledging, late tackles etc, which reached a crescendo when their inside centre rucked the head of my halfback and captain.

As a loose forward, I was particularly protective of him and he was only a little guy as well. I was furious. A penalty was called and as we stood ten metres apart in my teenage angst I yelled at him, “Do that again and I’ll f**king kill you!”. Probably not the way I’d handle any situation nowadays but there it was, I said it.

The opposition team smiled back. They were under my skin and they knew it. On the sideline, my Dad hung his head. But my coach shouted out to me, “Tell ’em with your shoulders, Russ”.

Soon after, I chose not to engage in a ruck and hid myself among the backs, flying out of the defensive line to catch the inside centre in the small ribs as he took a high pass. After that, the jeering stopped and the player wouldn’t go into contact anymore. I took away a valuable lesson about the power of words versus actions on the field.

It has recently been suggested that Jones has one more protagonist to reveal in his puppet show. The missing ‘link’ in his coaching dream team to develop the set piece who may or may not be a very recent Wallabies head coach. Whether true or not, the explosive rumour alone is enough to set keyboards rattling the rugby world over.

When I heard this rumour, a wry grin spread across my face and I wanted to type a cheeky comment that this mystery coach would be revealed in a flourish as Jarryd Hayne, with the announcement that a childhood dream of his was to be a set piece consultant for the English Rugby Football Union.

The joke died on my lips however as I remembered how much of an overhyped media storm the Fiji Sevens announcement had created. Every media outlet churning out five to ten articles with no new content but glittering headlines that created nothing but clickbait revenue. Quite quickly I began skipping past any article that mentioned him.

The time has come to similarly press the ‘mute’ button on the Eddie Jones Soap Opera. Yesterday, he was whinging that the Australian Border Security personnel were targeting him and the English team, tomorrow he’ll be complaining the hotel room service is also a part of a giant conspiracy to waylay those who swing low.

Are the subsequent articles going to be of any substance or benefit? Probably not. So just like the last over-hyped media storm, I will begin scrolling past the articles that refer to Jones and his apparent mind games (and no, the irony of writing this article is not lost on me).

In an interview with Green and Gold Rugby, World Cup-winning Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer made the observation that both Jones and Cheika play mind games. Jones likes to play his with the media and Cheika tends to play his within the squad, staying pretty tight-lipped with the press.

Cheika prefers to let his players do the talking, and no one speaks louder than the scoreboard.

I’m backing the Wallabies to win. If they do, I’d like to congratulate in advance Joe Launchbury for picking up Player of the Series (to be fair, I have re-watched the Australia versus England World Cup match and he was the best English player on-field).

But for the Wallaby playing group themselves: go well, go hard… and tell ’em with your shoulders.