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Eddie Jones says Rugby Australia has more NRL players “ready to sign” and follow in the code hopping footsteps of Joseph Suaalii.
The Wallabies coach was talking on New Zealand show The Breakdown and it’s unclear how serious or otherwise he was when he reacted to a question about more league recruits with his claim that: “We’ve got about three or four that are ready to sign mate. Big names.”
Of course Jones can’t always be taken at his word. Earlier this month he told a UK podcast that he would be leaving the Wallabies after the 2023 World Cup – before back tracking.
There might be some explanation in his next statement on The Breakdown – the obvious desire to talk up rugby in what he sees as a shrinking market in Australia.
While The Roar has never had more content about the game and its stars, other outlets are all but ignoring it, News Corp in particular.
“I think it adds to the competitive tension,” he said of the so-called code wars. “If you open the Daily Telegraph in in Sydney, you’ve got to go to the last page and even the last page now it’s probably got lawn bowls on it instead of rugby.
“So we need to get rugby back competing as a winter sport. And by signing a guy like Suaalii and if we signed two or three others that will help.
“lt’ll also show kids. A lot of the kids now go to a big private school and by the time they’re 15 if they’re good readers of the game, can catch and pass they’ve got a Rabbitohs contract or Roosters contract in front of them.
“The inevitability of that is is hard to stop because we’re competing against 17 clubs that all have the recruitment budget of Rugby Australia. So we’ve got to get some of those players back and ideally we’d keep more of them at a young age, which we have to do, but then to get a few of them back after they’ve done an apprenticeship in rugby league is fantastic.”
Jones has a healthy respect for rugby league, and brought Andrew Johns into camp last week to help with the Wallabies playmakers.
“We’re hoping he might make comeback – he’s still be pretty useful,” joked Jones.
“We want to play always been the Australian way. And we strayed away a little bit there.
“Andrew Johns – I’ve never seen a guy who understands that part of the game better than him – just the little tricks he does with his eyes and his feet.
“We’ve got a young bloke in Carter Gordon who’s only played 15 Super Rugby games, so to have 35 minutes with the maestro is going to be invaluable for his career.”
Jones believes the code war needs to be won in the school years.
“We’ve just got to get better at identifying talent and keeping talen and getting kids to know the advantages of playing rugby you know?
“Rugby league, we know it’s a great sport and it’s a great domestic sport, but basically you can’t play rugby league anywhere outside of Australia, little bits in New Zealand little bits in England a little bit in France but rugby is played in 180 countries and you can go anywhere in the world and basically get a rugby club.”
He was also asked inf New Zealand should be easing their overseas eligibility restrictions to allow players like Japan-bound Richie Mo’unga to continue playing for the All Blacks while based overseas.
“You don’t need him back here,” Jones joked.
“We want our best players to play in Super Rugby. But we’ve also got to understand that there are opportunities for players to set themselves up for life playing overseas and I don’t think we can take that away from them.
“You know, there’s a picture of Marika Koroibete – we don’t know his family situation and what he needs for his family. So to make judgments and say they have to play in Australia 100% I think it’s just a little bit too restrictive. I think we need to keep open the option of guys that have done their service in Australia and New Zealand playing overseas.”