Making the Wallabies one of the top rugby nations in the world will go a long way to fixing the issues besetting the game in Australia, according to former coach Eddie Jones.
Jones, who coached England to last year’s World Cup final including a quarter-final win over his native country, was interviewed on the Rugby Ruckus podcast, where he addressed the recent turmoil at Rugby Australia, where CEO Raelene Castle resigned only for the man touted as the next chairman, Peter Wiggs, to follow in her footsteps.
“Australia’s got good players. There’s plenty of good players playing here and there’s plenty of good players playing overseas,” he said.
“All that political infighting tends to go away when you start winning.”
Jones also discussed the structure of Australian rugby and how to get things back on track. Amongst his solutions was reducing the number of Australian Super Rugby sides back to three – what it was when he coached the Wallabies.
“Super Rugby went from three to five [teams], probably not in the best decisions of Australian rugby and that helped loosen the club competition,” Jones said.
“Now’s the opportunity to get club rugby strong and get the top end of the game strong. Because if you can get the base of the game right – which is the club rugby – and then you get the top level right, then the middle will work out pretty good. There’s been something wrong at the bottom level and the top level of Australian rugby for me…
“As a national coach, you want your best players playing together.
“And for me, that’s having three teams and three teams where there’s competition to get into those squads and you battle each other.
“I think if you spread it out too far, you can always try and grow the game but does that add to the national team?
“At the end of the day, if the Wallabies win, people will follow rugby in Australia.”
Jones also warned against following directly in the footsteps of other rugby nations, saying good governance has to cater to that country’s unique challenges and strengths.
“It’s completely different everywhere, so the only model that’s important is the model for your country.
“The worst thing to do is to look at another country and say ‘that’s what we’ve got to do’.
“To me, Australia’s been a rugby community based on strong clubs, the strong clubs then fit into a provincial system that collects the best players and then those provincial teams play against each other to represent the Wallabies.”
Talking about coaching, Jones was scathing in his assessment of the pathways available in Australia.
“That’s one thing Australian rugby’s dropped the ball on completely. They’ve dropped the ball and the ball’s been lost in the gutter.
“We were ahead of New Zealand at one stage when the game went professional in terms of coaching development.
“I can remember my first coaching job, which was at Randwick, I went to see [Brian] ‘Boxhead’ O’Shea. He was in charge at the AIS and had a scheme of apprenticeship coaches and there was a bloke in there in the same boardshorts he’s in today: Scott Wisemantel [the recently appointed Wallabies attack coach and England’s attack coach under Jones at the World Cup].
“And they were the sort of coaches Australia produced, guys who at an early age were learning their craft. You had an old guy like Boxhead, good academic guy, who gave you sound grounding in the coaching fundamentals. Then we were lucky enough to be coached by Bob Dwyer at Randwick, who knew a thing or two about coaching…
“That sort of intellectual property’s been lost in Australia and that’s something that needs to come back. Australia needs to become the smart country in rugby.”
You can watch the full hour-long episode of the Rugby Ruckus in the player below:
Matt
Guest
Exactly.The tahs are a terrible organization one title in 24 years. 2014 ( best player was a saffer too ) Get rid of them and the rugger folk can go support their substandard SH@T SHIELD as they don't really get crowds at tah matches anyway.
Simoc
Guest
If Jones is right the third Super team needs to be a composite WA, ACT, Vic team playing a couple of home games in each state. Would that work?
Guess
Roar Rookie
A club with the biggest money will be winning, like in football. Gets boring pretty fast
Guess
Roar Rookie
Yep looks like perfect time for them to buy, not only in rugby
EvilCB
Guest
Australia used to be the intelligent rugby nations in the late 90s - the early 2000's and then forewent any attempt to develop strategies in favour of hiring leaguies who had never played the sport. From 2003, the year that Sailor and Rogers joined, it was the end of the Wallabies.
Busted Fullback
Roar Rookie
You only have to look at the way the EPL clubs screw over the other nations by allowing England players time off for England squad activities, but keep the Welsh, Scots etc until the last moment. Then there's the way the French clubs operate and their attitude to other 6N players and their release. And let's not forget the french attitude to PI players, play in the WC and we'll sack you. I don't think Oz or Kiwi players would be treated much differently if they are there en masse. I do recall Beale being able to get particular conditions in his contract with Wasps but that was only one player at one club. Some of us still believe representing your country is worth more than money. (I have an idea and maybe an article on this very point.)
Hoolifan
Guest
You know what? This idea is so crazy that it might even work. If you get rid of the Sydney metro team, then the rugby union followers there just go and follow their local club outfits instead of cannibalising the market like they do in the status quo. Sydney then becomes the farm for the major teams of Super rugby. A win-win situation. On top of all this, we all know Sydney folks don't travel to matches anyway so it saves on the sizeable stadium rentals and housing for pro players.
Oblonsky‘s Other Pun
Roar Guru
Possibly. But I think the data there is correlative. Especially when you consider the 2011 Reds side had been building for a few years. It was a legacy of the four team system. Also consider that the conference system protected Australian teams and advantaged us, compared to New Zealand. As we progressed through 2011-17, the average win rate of an Australian side was poor.
Double Agent
Guest
My bad.
JAMES G HASLAM
Guest
I would think allowing Aussies based overseas to play for Australia, and bringing in 3 Leagueies for the World Cup would get the Wallabies back on top. And surely any deficits at lower levels could be fixed by a few GPS old boys digging a bit deeper into their pockets. Or don't they care enough for 'their' game?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Toomu, TPN, Genia. Basically every one that was used outside a RWC.
Steve 50
Roar Rookie
Exactly Micko, it’s jacko that’s full of contradictions and he wants a protectionist model. The kiwis/Fijians/Tongans would be up in arms if the NRL blocked there free markets to play in the NRL, 40% of Playing kiwis would be furious. But oh no , rugby can only make its money from one side and live beyond its means especially in Australia
Micko
Roar Rookie
These kiwis don't mind us aussies having an open market for sports do they? 40% of NRL playing stock are kiwis! :shocked: Imagine if us aussies were like, "nah, only aussies in aussie teams!". The kiwis like Jacko are scared that their precious all blacks are somehow going to suffer in a proper pro competition. I wonder how SA won the world cup, or why England demolished them then in the WC SF if their stubborn "locals only" policy is somehow magical?
Micko
Roar Rookie
UK IS IN Europe TWAS. :stoked:
Micko
Roar Rookie
Beaten and drawn with NZ in NZ! :shocked:
Steve 50
Roar Rookie
Which OS players performed below par. Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell has good 2015 world cups , and Chieka had a huge look at both in the pre World Cup squad and he picked em ahead of local players as they were better in the training camp. The South African overseas players all played key roles at last yrs World Cup
Steve 50
Roar Rookie
SA fans don’t care if they have foriegn blow ins and less centralised than NZ, SA fans and European fans only care about World Cup not November internationals or soccer friendly July tests. Six nations all teams only get one week prep no worries TWAS.
Muglair
Roar Rookie
I am interested to see how this plays out everywhere. If you go by history you will find there are quite a few with billions in assets and billions in debt. Only one of those goes down in a downturn. The world has also become a very large place all of a sudden. The end of career sabbatical with a young family in a foreign country just became less attractive. Easy access to home in a family crisis - untick. Secure income with no need for native language - untick We are a long way from seeing how this plays out.
Steve 50
Roar Rookie
That’s developmental imports RA allows as opposed to imports who will never be eligible to play for the wallabies.
AndyS
Guest
Read it again...