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Opinion
If you skim through the vision of Eddie Jones’ press conference after England’s 25-17 win in Brisbane on Saturday night, you note from about the five-minute mark of the 13-minute clip that Jones spends much of that remaining time looking very comfortable indeed.
He’s rocked back in the chair, arms folded across his chest, smiling and speaking warmly throughout.
In short, Eddie is back holding court and he loves it. This is Eddie Jones’ happy place.
About the game itself, he was thrilled with the turnaround from Perth, happy that an extra week of training helped combinations a bit more. England played more the way he wants them to, he said, and even laid claim to getting a bit more of the refereeing rub of the green. All the usual stuff.
But he was back at his combative best too, having a dig a Will Kelleher of The Times asking about Billy Vunipola’s performance, and not wanting to discuss disappointed England fans as he had done the week before in Perth.
“I know they’re unhappy. All our fans are unhappy,” he said.
“They’re all out there saying, ‘that was rubbish, we don’t like the selection’. They’re all saying that mate, so make sure you write it.”
By the end of the press conference, he was also back claiming he didn’t read the papers.
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
He tried to downplay a question about outside noise firing up the England players, but when the follow-up question was re-pointed to him specifically, he gave one of the great quotes from a coach riding the roller-coaster of pressure and form.
“No, I like it, I think it’s fantastic,” he said.
“I love my mother ringing me up in the morning, are you getting sacked? Are you going to get sacked? When are they going to sack you? When do you have to move? Are you going to come back to Australia? Come back and live in Randwick.
“I love that. My poor mother.”
His comments about cards in the Brisbane game, and the earlier New Zealand-Ireland game in Dunedin have been well covered, and the deliberate knock-down quotes particularly have made for great headlines that fit nicely into the predominantly rugby league lens used to cover the rugby codes in Australia, and that sports editors love.
“’Game’s out of control’: Coaches, players, fans and refs are united by their hatred of the dumbest law in rugby,” our own headline here on The Roar screamed of Jones’ thoughts on the matter.
On what it would mean for his players to win the series, and whether that might silence the critics?
“Well, all that we’re worried about, mate, is preparing well on Monday. If we prepare well on Monday, then prepare well again on Tuesday, then we’ll worry about whatever happens after that.”
On the Wallabies’ rapidly growing injury crisis?
“Oh, all we’re worried about now is preparing for… we just worry about ourselves, mate.”
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
Everyone is Eddie Jones’ mate again, it seems. A 13-minute press conference, and the master of deflection managed to speak about his team’s performance immediately preceding for a couple of minutes at most, and of the series going to a deciding match for even less than that.
Eddie loves talking, but he loves actually saying very, very little even more. He’d be a fascinating psychology study.
But the focus is all back on him again this week, and that’s the way he prefers things. The more bullets and jibes and arrows he can take during the week, the less his team has to contend with. The more pressure Jones can absorb as coach, the less his one-win-in-five-games team has to.
And it will make for a thoroughly fascinating build-up to the Third and deciding Test in Sydney, because both teams are in a similar position, both in terms of performance and head count.
That’s part of the reason Jones isn’t thinking about the growing Wallabies unavailability list – because his isn’t exactly short, either.
Maro Itoje won’t play in Sydney for the same reason Jordan Petaia won’t. Sam Underhill joined that list late on Monday, and fellow backrower Jack Willis is still trying to overcome the rib injury that ruled him out of the Brisbane test after initially being named.
But it’s nothing on the Wallabies casualty list at the moment, with another four players out of action during Saturday’s game adding to the tally. Almost a third of the squad is injured, plus Darcy Swain remains suspended for another week. And with Jed Holloway and Ned Hanigan both under clouds, it’s no wonder that 30-Test lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, now formerly of Queensland and bound for Northampton, was called up from Brisbane club rugby.
James Slipper joked about being possibly needed in the second row for Sydney, but so desperate are the times becoming for the Wallabies, that it can’t be completely laughed off nearly as quickly as it should be.
So with Eddie Jones back to where he wants to be up front, and the Wallabies busy with roll calls and head counts, we’ve now got an England team with regained confidence, but out of the headlines.
Back in Sydney, back under the radar, even back training at Coogee Oval, and all well and truly back in Eddie’s happy place.
It’s going to be an interesting week.