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Eddie Jones says his successor as England coach was right to claim the team is “not good at anything” and backed Steve Borthwick to “fix it.”
England lost their opening Six Nations match to Scotland and Borthwick appeared to put at least part of the blame on Jones, who was sacked ahead of the tournament before returning to the Wallabies job.
Borthwick said the team he inherited from Jones was “not good at anything” and Jones had a surprising response on his latest podcast released Friday.
“Well, he’s probably right,” Jones told his co-host David Pembroke.
“And that was part of the problem. We were trying to morph a team that’s been a very good set piece, a very good kicking team. I think the way the game is played at the moment that’ll win you games but it’s probably not good enough to be a World Cup champion.
“Expanding the attack then sometimes takes away from your strengths. And they’re going through that difficult period now where they’re trying to get the balance right in the game.
“But Steve will fix it. There’s no doubt he’ll fix it, and keep blaming me, that’s alright. I’ve got a pretty strong back and pretty strong shoulders to absorb that.”
Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham joins Christy Doran ahead of the Super Rugby Pacific kick-off. Listen below
The Wallabies have confirmed their Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup fixtures, which lead up to the Rugby World Cup in September.
In a shortened version of TRC, the Wallabies will open against South Africa at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria on July 8.
They return to Australia to take on Argentina at CommBank Stadium in Sydney just seven days later in what will be their first hit out on home soil for the year, on July 15.
The schedule then sees the Bledisloe Cup fixtures played back-to-back with the Wallabies hosting the All Blacks at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday July 29. Game two is at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin on August 5.
2023 Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup Fixtures
Wallabies v South Africa, Time TBC, Saturday 8 July at Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria
Wallabies v Argentina, 7:45pm AEST, Saturday 15 July at CommBank Stadium, Sydney
Wallabies v New Zealand, 7:45pm AEST, Saturday 29 July at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne
Wallabies v New Zealand, 2:35pm NZST/12:35pm AEST Saturday 5 August at Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin
Warren Gatland has reacted to Wales’ opening-round loss in the Six Nations by dropping three long-time stars of the team for the match against Scotland.
Lock Alun Wyn Jones and flanker Justin Tipuric weren’t even picked in the reserves for Saturday’s clash, while No. 8 Taulupe Faletau dropped to the bench as the New Zealander Gatland made the first big calls in his second spell as coach on Thursday in the wake of a 34-10 loss to Ireland in Cardiff.
There are six changes in total, one of them being positional, to a team that appears to be looking to the future, with the Rugby World Cup in seven months.
All of them come in the forwards, with props Dillon Lewis and Wyn Jones replacing the injured Tomas Francis and Gareth Thomas, the 20-year-old Dafydd Jenkins coming in for the 37-year-old Alun Wyn Jones, and flankers Tommy Reffell and Christ Tshiunza taking the places of Faletau and Tipuric.
Jac Morgan switched from blindside flanker to No. 8.
Warren Gatland. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
Gatland said the call-ups for Jenkins and Tshiunza — a 21-year-old Congo-born back-rower — were “looking a bit to the future” and the selection of Morgan at No. 8 was Wales “looking at options if Faletau picks up an injury.”
Asked if his selection signalled a changing of the guard, Gatland said: “I don’t think so.
“We need to think about what’s important in this tournament. We still want to do well and Saturday is important. But we need to think long-term in the next seven or eight months.
“We’ve got a huge disparity between the young players and the caps they have.”
Gatland said Alun Wyn Jones and Tipuric, who have 156 and 90 Wales caps respectively, could still have a future at Test level.
“Of course. They’ve been brilliant,” he said. “We know what they can do. But these other players, we don’t know how they can handle it.
“That’s our thinking — getting that balance and giving those group of players a chance without too many changes.”
Scotland have made just one change from their 29-23 win over England at Twickenham, with prop Zander Fagerson returning in place of WP Nel, who drops into the reserves.
Gatland said, “We are playing a team who is probably at its strongest for a number of years.”
Scotland: Stuart Hogg, Kyle Steyn, Huw Jones, Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe, Finn Russell, Ben White; Matt Fagerson, Luke Crosbie, Jamie Ritchie (captain), Grant Gilchrist, Richie Gray, Zander Ferguson, George Turner, Pierre Schoeman.
Reserves: Fraser Brown, Jamie Bhatti, WP Nel, Jonny Gray, Jack Dempsey, George Horne, Blair Kinghorn, Chris Harris.
Wales: Liam Williams, Josh Adams, George North, Joe Hawkins, Rio Dyer, Dan Biggar, Tomos Williams; Jac Morgan, Tommy Reffell, Christ Tshiunza, Adam Beard, Dafydd Jenkins, Dillon Lewis, Ken Owens (captain), Wyn Jones.
Reserves: Scott Baldwin, Rhys Carre, Leon Brown, Rhys Davies, Taulupe Faletau, Rhys Webb, Rhys Patchell, Alex Cuthbert.
Ireland and France have kept changes to a minimum for a Six Nations clash between the world’s top teams in Dublin, with the home side’s two influential Australians Mack Hansen and Finlay Bealham both selected again.
The Canberra pair of winger Hansen and prop Bealham, who ply their trade together at provincial side Connacht now and qualify for their adopted nation through their Irish family ties, both impressed in the opening win over Wales and retain their places for Saturday’s blockbuster.
There’s only one change by the Irish, who have lost influential hooker Dan Sheehan to a hamstring injury and selected Rob Herring as the deputy.
Sheehan has been almost ever-present since coming off the bench to replace the injured Ronan Kelleher in last year’s 30-24 loss to France in Paris, so it’s a big blow.
Halfback Conor Murray had been a potential injury doubt following the 34-10 win over Wales last weekend but he’s been passed fit to continue his partnership with No.10 Johnny Sexton.
Mack Hansen. (Photo By Seb Daly/Sportsfile via Getty Image
France have kept faith with the same starting XV which struggled to subdue Italy 29-24, with the only changes coming in the reserves.
Flanker Francois Cros and halfback Baptiste Couilloud return and the less-experienced Thomas Lavault and Nolann Le Garrec, who made his debut against Italy, dropped out.
“There are no surprises in this starting XV. Nor are there any among the finishers,” coach Fabien Galthie said on Thursday.
“We have been working with this starting XV for three weeks. We have little time, so it is important to create a coherent strategic and tactical structure.”
Last Sunday, France started as the heavy favourites in Rome and were 19-6 ahead in the first half.
But Italy fought back strongly to lead 24-22 in the last quarter. Matthieu Jalibert finished his forwards’ work to score the match-winning try minutes later but France finished their opening match defending their own try line.
The win was France’s 14th in a row since they last lost a match two years ago – to Ireland in Dublin.
Ireland: Hugo Keenan, Mack Hansen, Garry Ringrose, Stuart McCloskey, James Lowe, Johnny Sexton (captain), Conor Murray; Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, Peter O’Mahony, James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne, Finlay Bealham, Rob Herring, Andrew Porter.
Reserves: Ronan Kelleher, Dave Kilcoyne, Tom O’Toole, Iain Henderson, Jack Conan, Craig Casey, Ross Byrne, Bundee Aki.
France: Thomas Ramos, Damian Penaud, Gael Fickou, Yoram Moefana, Ethan Dumortier, Romain Ntamack, Antoine Dupont (captain); Grégory Alldritt, Charles Ollivon, Anthony Jelonch, Paul Willemse, Thibaud Flament, Uini Atonio, Julien Marchand, Cyril Baille.
Reserves: Gaetan Barlot, Reda Wardi, Sipili Falatea, Romain Taofifenua, Francois Cros, Sekou Macalou, Baptiste Couilloud, Matthieu Jalibert.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.