Expect the New Zealand economy to be booming this week, mate, after Eddie Jones’ hot air bubble burst like a balloon with the Wallabies walloped in Melbourne.
The Australian coach is now 0-3 in his comeback since replacing Dave Rennie – his zero percent win record looking a lot shakier than the 38 per cent that got Rennie sacked. With New Zealand in Dunedin and France in Paris to come before the World Cup match against Georgia it’s hard to see matters improving any time soon.
Jones was at his bullish best after this disappointing loss.
“Where’s there’s life there’s hope. I’ve coached teams like this before and you can turn it around,” said Jones.
“I saw enough today to know that we can be bloody good team. You’re sitting there thinking shit what’s his bloke talking about? But I’m telling you boys, we can turn it around and be a very good team.
“So for the fans, they got to keep being hopeful. Keep praying, whatever God they’ve got, keep praying to them that we turn it around. We will.”
Jones has opted for a front foot verbal attack and there were plenty of fans gleefully taking to social media to give him a lashing in the wake of this latest disappointment. It’s not just Kiwi supporters who were upset at his claims that a Wallabies win would sink their economy – on reflection perhaps not the funniest joke a multi millionaire footy coach could make in a time of hardship for many across the ditch and at home.
Jordan Petaia of the Wallabies tackles Jordie Barrett . (Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)
On the field the All Blacks are booming. Australia is starting look like a third world rugby country.
And it’s not just that jibe that was looking silly on Saturday night. Two weeks ago, after his team blew the lead to lose to Argentina, Jones warned New Zealand to “look out”. That they did – no sign of arrogance or complacency on show as they masterfully absorbed Australia’s second half pressure before turning on the style.
It’s to the immense credit of the All Blacks players interviewed after the game – especially the gracious Ardie Savea who sent thoughts and prayers to two injured Wallabies Allan Alaalatoa and Taniela Tupou – that none of them reminded Jones of his bullishness ahead of this game.
“Good fun” was how Will Jordan described it and for Kiwi fans it was that.
Social media, of course, wasn’t so forgiving as Jones started trending on Twitter as the All Blacks points tally mounted in the second half.
Former England international Andy Goode was the most scathing.
The preposterous positivity of Jones in the pre-match was in stark contrast to the words coming from his shattered team afterwards.
He’s trying to make them believe – and from Nic White to James Slipper they are prattling on about having faith and wanting fans to stick with them. But there can’t be many fans left who see this turning out okay in France.
The straight talking Tate McDermott is almost an anti-Eddie in his clarity and commonsense.
“Gutted. Just disappointed. 83000 people showed up to support us and we didn’t give them much,” was about all the Reds No.9 could muster.
“It’s hard. We let down all the Melbourne people. We’ve let down Eddie and we let down Australia. They’re a great side. To beat them you have to be brilliant,” added Angus Bell.
Allan Alaalatoa. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Whitey wants your faith.
“A huge crowd came out and we let them down. Tonight hurts (but) we have a World Cup at the end of the year and we have to move on quick.
“At the moment we’re not getting a complete performance, there were a couple of tries we kind of gifted them. It bloody hurts but we’ll build and fine those good areas, continue to work hard. We’ve got to keep building – we’ve got have faith. It’s hard at the moment. It’s hard for fans but stay with us we’ll keep working.”
There have been suggestions that Jones flogged his players in training over the past two weeks and this is all part of an elaborate rope-a-dope strategy that won’t be completely apparent until the RWC knock out stages.
There are some experts who see green shoots despite the losses.
“All the Wallabies fans and players should be gutted,” said World Cup winner Tim Horan.
“No one wants to see the Wallabies beaten by that much. But I saw enough in 56 minutes to give me and hopefully the fans, hope leading into next Saturday and the World Cup.
“I thought they were more physical at the breakdown, defence was a lot better , and they needed to score a try in that 16 minute in the second half.”
He praised the work of Izzy Perese and Jordie Petaia.
“It’s a bit like a racehorse. They’ll need a few more matches but be better for the run after tonight.”
“Let’s call it what it is,” said former Wallaby Drew Mitchell. “It’s disappointing. It’s not where we want to be and where we need to be at this point of a campaign this close to a World Cup.
“It’s time to pick and stick. Eddie Jones needs to pick his best XV and give them some time together in these next two Test matches to start getting some combination and cohesiveness together.”
Biscuit man
Roar Rookie
Eddie was spot on at the press conference. At least he has the balls to make the changes we need. Rennie, Mackeller and the bearded monster before him were clueless and created this mess. Eddie has to make big calls to clean it up, and it's going to take time. I think he is doing a great job and it won't be long before the Wallabies start winning get some confidence and become a force again.
Guess
Roar Rookie
“I think the team is growing, We’ve developed and are going in the right direction.” That’s what he said in 2020 about England.. Instead they progressively had gotten worse. He’s been talking himself up for 3 games now. I mean he’s been always doing it. He made a living out of empty promises
Cam Watts
Roar Rookie
8th Dougo...
WEST
Roar Guru
It’s at the point we want Australian rugby cranking!! With the loss of SA, it’s now up to NZ&AUST to work something out. It’s of no interest to us to just go out and know what the result will be before the balls kicked off. We won’t get better like that, there has to be a balance of not kicking ARU when it’s down, while trying to lend a hand to get them to a higher level. I suggested our best coaches run training schools at junior rugby.. like Henry, Wayne Smith running drills. Have former All Blacks like Andrew Mehrtens! He’s living there! He can help train a backline attack and develop up and coming 10s. SBW can help convert young Pacific Islanders to get into rugby. All these kiwis living there, who don’t mind living in the country, but don’t want to support their adoptive homes.
Country Boy
Roar Rookie
I think we also need to recognise that RA takes a top down approach because that is all they can do. They run the Wallabies and the high-performance stuff, but they don’t run the state unions and they don’t run the club competitions. And my long term impression is that the state unions and club competitions don’t actually give a stuff about what RA or the Wallabies want – they want to run their little worlds to suit themselves, and themselves alone. Allowing for plenty of poor decisions from RA over the years, the reality is that RA sits on top of a rotten structure and has very little money, and very little control over the things that would fundamentally need to change for the Wallabies to be world class in about 20 years time.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Nah. Good coaches make an impact immediately. What takes time is them getting their team to their full potential.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Well today we only have 3 games to judge on. And they show Eddie is worse than 38%.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
That standard gets us to the quarters and possibly the semis – which is about as much as we can expect from this team,and not something I saw happening at the end of last year. So because you have blind belief in Eddie and blind dislike of Rennie that's meaningful. We played better vs NZ last year yet despite an inferior performance you talk up how good we played simply because you want to criticise Rennie and praise Jones.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
It’s easy to be a critic. Harder to show faith. Did you have this attitude towards Rennie?
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
I think also a case of not picking the right team to make that many tackles over 80.
Kenners
Roar Rookie
I completely agree with you; the team is progressing under EJ, and I have genuine belief that we can be very competitive in a relatively short timeframe. I also believe that we would have lost those games if Rennie in charge too; we were going nowhere with him. The English (media, in particular) have shown, since the beginning of time, that they will almost claim 'God-like' status when they are winning, but will tirelessly and mercilessly crucify their own teams when they're losing: Enter Andy Goode, who is just a product of that established mantra.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Eden Park moa, Bro? Nah It's at Forsyth Barr in Otepoti, next week! Lol :laughing: :laughing:
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
I wouldn't be pointing that finger to far Jez, as try having a little bo peep, at the opposite. I think you'll find the numbers far greater coming from Aotearoa into the land of Oz!! Fact.
Iron Fist
Roar Rookie
My point is such claims must be verified with the performance staff based on their data rather than loosely claiming they’re training harder than what they can handle during a test series. Overreaching is fine. ‘Overtraining’ them into a hole physically and mentally they can’t recover from, and their performance and ability to finish a test match is compromised is negligent. What I said is that this injury was happening under the previous coach too, so frameworks, comms, facilities, etc. from super rugby to the national team must be investiagted because there is obviously a serious issue when the outcome is 5 achilles injuries in a year! Are the All Blacks, Springboks, and Pumas getting these injuries?
Bobby
Roar Rookie
155 think it was and final count was 203. Wished id remembered the same stat for the ABs because the numbers for me just don't correlate.The mis tackle stat of 12 for the game surely is wrong. And a reason for this is the stat of tackle success rate which was in mid 90%. Plus the obvious one scoreboard. The turnstiles were fully operational again that even my girlfriend was questioning the misses.
WEST
Roar Guru
They’re getting there, last few years have been very poor PR. Neglecting our grassroots stuff, especially right at the school kid level. They like ARU is getting very top heavy, the appointment of the NZRU board is a joke! The breakdown of the relationship with the players association is another fuk up. NZ rugby registration numbers are dwindling.. yet they don’t address it. Mark Robinson is terrible! Rarely makes himself available, time after time journalist and broadcasters ask for interviews and he turns them down. He has no respect for the fans or the NZ public. He forgets who pays his bills! Buys the tickets, buys the merchandise etc
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
I don't think that Robinson is that bad.. they are at least seem to acknowledge the issues
Fox
Roar Guru
The line will always be broken at different stages of the game Moaman - It is how you deal with it that is alkso part of good D and I think the AB's delt with it very well and regrouped and nullified the linebreak which is what good defensive sides do as no team can prevent every linebreaks in a game. Yes they need to adress that but equally the delt with it in the end and one of the reasons why Australia struggled to score.
Colvin Brown
Roar Guru
Haha, yes. I also confess to being a bit bland. A few years ago, I posted an opinion on something on Roar. Nothing controversial but someone was so bothered by my considered thoughts he looked up my profile and, in an attempt to throw the biggest insult possible at me he thundered, "I just looked at your profile pic. You're just an old Beatle. Who would listen to an old Beatle? Put me completely in my place. So, I can take being a bit bland. As moaman said we pioneered it.
Possum face
Roar Rookie
The melting chocolate rugby team. Or is it Eddie's chocolate factory with underperfoming umpalumpas?