PARIS – What was Eddie Jones holding back against France? Despite suffering their fifth straight loss to start 2023 by going down to France 41-17 in Paris on Monday, prop Taniela Tupou said the Wallabies had rolled out a completely different game-plan against Les Bleus and had eyes only for next month’s World Cup.
“We came into this game against France with a different game plan, just for this game,” Tupou told reporters at the Stade de France.
“We didn’t want to show too much before the World Cup.
“I thought the boys did well to try and follow that game plan. We only had a week to look at that.
“At training, we’ve been working on our game plan for the World Cup. It’ll be interesting coming out against Georgia with a different game plan.”
A master planner who has twice knocked the All Blacks out at the semi-final stages, including with England in 2019 and back in 2003 with the Wallabies months after being hammered by their trans-Tasman neighbours, Jones, if we are to take Tupou’s word for it, is trying to play rugby’s great bluff.
“I guess we didn’t want to show too much before the World Cup started,” Tupou added.
Jones, too, has been adamant the Wallabies are on the right track and insisted they have “longer-term plans”.
“Within the camp, we’ve got a fair bit of confidence,” Jones told reporters following the Wallabies’ heavy loss to the World Cup host nation, who are one of the tournament favourites.
“Obviously we’d like to have a better win/loss record but we’ve re-established the team. We’ve taken away all the leadership that was there previously. We’ve got a new leadership team in place. We’re trying to play a different way.
“The results haven’t been good. It hasn’t been good enough. I’m not hiding away from that but we do have a longer-term plan in terms of the World Cup and that’s what we’re here for.”
He added: “We’re not a bad team but we’re not a good team yet. We’re going through the process of becoming a good team. We’ve got to keep believing and working hard and it’ll come. It might be in two weeks’ time against Georgia. It might be three weeks against Fiji. It might be four weeks against Wales. It might be five weeks against Portugal. We don’t know when it’s going to come.”
What that game plan is remains to be seen, but Jones has drastically overhauled the Wallabies’ team over the past two months by backing youth, speed and explosiveness.
Vice-captain Tate McDermott, who was sprightly and threatening against France, said ahead of the match he was confident they would “shock” the world at the tournament after ripping up their game plan.
“The way we want to play suits me perfectly,” he told reporters at the Wallabies’ captain’s run.
“It’s kind of moving away from the structured nature of what we had the past three years, and it brings my strengths into the Test arena, which selflessly is perfect but it’s also suiting a lot of the other boys as well.
Thibaud Flament of France is tackled by Richie Arnold and Taniela Tupou. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
“We’ve got some brilliant ball-carriers and we’re testing teams now in an unfamiliar nature that we haven’t done before.”
In this high-stakes game of rugby poker, the Wallabies are blessed to have a favourable draw.
Unlike Scotland who have Ireland and South Africa to contend with, the Wallabies won’t face a side in the top six on the World Rugby rankings.
Fiji, who shocked England on Saturday by claiming a stunning 30-22 win at Twickenham, are their highest ranked opponents at seventh.
Wales, a traditional World Cup rival, are 10th after another horror year to start Warren Gatland’s second tenure in charge of the British nation.
Georgia, who the Wallabies will play first in less than a fortnight in Saint Etienne, are 11th.
Tupou said the Wallabies were embracing their underdog tags.
Eddie Jones, Head Coach of Australia, looks on ahead of the 2023 Summer International match between France and Australia at Stade de France. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
“We’re definitely the underdog,” he said.
“Coming into the World Cup we’ve got five losses. It’s nothing but the underdog. We like it.
“We’re going to keep working hard. We won’t say much. We’ll let our actions do the talking.”
And work the Wallabies are doing, with Jones treating the past two months as an unofficial pre-season.
Last Wednesday, players were speaking privately of the session being one of the hardest under Jones since he was parachuted into the role in January.
“Training was hard this week but then again, for us to be able to play the game plan that he [Jones] wants us to play for the other teams in the World Cup, we need to be fit,” Tupou said.
“That’s why we’ve been working really hard. It’s been hot, man. I think he’s making us get used to working under fatigue. Whatever it takes. We want to win. Whatever it takes. There’s no complaining.”
Jones, too, said the Wallabies were hanging on after saying he didn’t expect any changes to his 33-man World Cup despite injury clouds hanging over James Slipper (foot) and Andrew Kellaway (arm), who came off late in the defeat against France.
“We’ve been going through a tough training period as the boys know, so everyone’s right on the edge at the moment,” Jones said.
“And we’ll have one more week of hard training in Saint Etienne and then we’ll ease off a bit for the Georgia game.”
Tupou, who said he was still finding his lungs after playing just his second Test of the year and first start, added that the Wallabies were as close as ever and confident ahead of their World Cup opener.
“We’re a pretty tight group,” he said.
“Not winning games is hard but I feel like we’re all helping each other and there’s good vibes. What can we do. It’s done now. We’ve got to keep working hard. We’ve got tough games coming up in Georgia, Fiji and Wales.”
While the Wallabies will head in favourites against Georgia, Tupou said they knew what was coming and had to ensure they were close to their best to start the tournament well.
“They’re good at their scrum and they’re known for their set-piece,” he said.
“We know what we can do when we bring our A-game. We’ve been close.
“We’ve got two weeks to get it right before Georgia. We can’t bring our B game because we need our A game to beat Georgia.
“I got interviewed before the game [in 2019] and my focus was scrums and set-piece. They are similar to Argentina. They are big bodies, carry hard, work hard around the corner. We’re going to be working hard to try and defend that.”
Loosey
Roar Rookie
I'm not even sure that's a given. Australia A didn't exactly walk it in. I've got Georgia on my mind.
Ankle-tapped Waterboy
Roar Rookie
Portugal? Portugal is for you.
Ankle-tapped Waterboy
Roar Rookie
Agree that Australia has skills issues which are systemic and known. Deans famously pointed this out over a decade ago when he was forced to address technique issues at Wallabies level, that were dealt with a junior level in NZ. Even so, applying a keen eye and a blowtorch sensibility to Jones is important, because he was hired when Australia slipped to its worst-ever world ranking of #9, after the 2022 end-of-year tour. Not only has Australia kept that ranking, there’s a feature of the ranking system which acknowledges shellackings. Jones, by transitioning the team from close losses to thumpings, has worsened Australia’s position. ” it is significant whether sides win relatively comfortably – with ‘something to spare’ – so a weighting is applied where a side wins a match by more than 15 points.” The straw at which he currently clutches is that ranking points are doubled for the World Cup, in recognition of it being a special tournament.
Ankle-tapped Waterboy
Roar Rookie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines You're welcome.
Stu
Roar Rookie
Just wanted to make a noticeable example about defence, and the epic attitude posessed by the top 3 sides that we clearly don't have to the same level: In the France match yesterday, at the 22:50 minute mark, broken play occured and the French no.8 swooped on the ball and charged forward, straight at an isolated Tate MacD.. an enormous mismatch in size if ever there was one. The Frenchman broke Tate's lone tackle initially, but within his charging metre, Tate had regained his grip and not only threw the guy to the ground - on his own, he somehow managed to savagely jolt the guy backwards by the metre he'd made. He did it entirely on his own, with not another Wallaby close enough to assist. He's a little guy, yet he regularly stops much bigger guys on the charge. If the majority of Wallabies had this level of defensive commitment, I doubt we'd be anything like 0-5.
TDAndo
Roar Rookie
Bravo @Sage! I tend to agree with you, and while the game as a whole in Australia is in a dire state and in need of a re-boot, none of that should stop any of us supporting these brave young Wallabies as they take on the mammoth task of representing all Australians on one of the biggest sporting stages on earth. Regardless of the outcome or the nostalgia that we might carry from our own brilliant suburban Rugby careers - as long as they give their all and do their best, we should be both supportive and proud of them. 100%.
Jazz
Roar Rookie
Interesting pattern the wallabies have developed in 22/23 thus far against SA, AB's, France & Arg. We lose by 24~31 points and either just win or just lose by a small margin. Is it all mental that we gain confidence, get humbled, gain confidence & so on? Surely this can't be good??
RD
Roar Rookie
It’s his team. He has been given the full authority by RA to do whatever, whenever, with whoever he feels right to put the WBs once again among the top tier. We all knew this is what we were getting into when Eddie was signed up. This is no different to when he took over England in 2015. So let’s now keep our fingers crossed that he takes us on a 17 game unbeaten run starting with Georgia.
Sage
Roar Rookie
What a cynical and negative place the site has become lately. Many need to move on from the rennie/jones happenings. I get it - "my incredibly humble man was done wrong and Eddie is very different and annoys me". It is what it is. He is the WB coach and the big show is about to start. I want to offer nothing but support. Some big-ish names have been left out upsetting quite a few. Move on, it happens. He's gone with fresh blood and the idea that they will be permanently scarred by the early exposure and experience and God forbid losing, to me is BS. The idea that there is a particular game plan that wasn't on show against the French and that edge players got game time is of no great surprise but obviously gave the amateur comedians some fodder. These guys are young and keen and I want to focus on the positives. Pretty thin on the ground 'round here currently
Tooly
Roar Rookie
Eddie certainly has that nailed ! He hasn’t shown anything for 18 months except BS , dissatisfaction , disappointment and confusion .
Colvin Brown
Roar Guru
Fair enough scrum. We hope it works out for the team.
Loosey
Roar Rookie
That was the largest points total France have ever scored against Australia. What a time to do it. A French side that was beaten three weeks ago by Scotland. I feel for Scotland - what tough group - they should have been switched with Australia on form.
TDAndo
Roar Rookie
Eddie is calling a spade a cocktail fork that's gold @Hughi! Quote of the day!
Hughi
Roar Rookie
You make good points and I agree with most. The downside is Eddie is a good coach but the rubbish he is coming out with is starting to attract negative comments, I have always had some regard for calling a spade a spade but Eddie is calling a spade a cocktail fork. You need a bit of honesty. You are correct the system needs an overhaul badly.
Loosey
Roar Rookie
Sure. But I’m not buying the ‘we don’t want to show all our cards, BS’. If you can beat France just do it in the warm up or at least go close. This was a thrashing. The largest points total France have wracked up against Australia ever and 4 points off the highest winning margin. Don’t sugar coat it.
scrum
Roar Rookie
It’s all up in the air at the moment. I did not support the sacking of Rennie. He and Eddie are 2 diametrically opposed personalities. I am a bit confused as to where I stand but judgement will come at the end of the pool round. Eddie obviously had a change of heart at some stage to change direction probably with an eye to the future as well. One thing that gives me heart is that he has managed to get Vunivalu to produce a good performance, something I thought impossible and unattainable by other coaches. The die is cast, let’s get behind the team and leave the recriminations/ praise until the results are in.
Cassandra
Roar Rookie
If the objective was to not show too much before the World Cup, then I'd say it was mission accomplished.
TDAndo
Roar Rookie
Everyone seems so focussed on the coach and what he is doing right/wrong/otherwise...when it is clear as day that the problem is that Australian Rugby players don't have the simple, basic skills to execute the game or the gameplay in an effective way. Our players are well-meaning, brave and committed but they have rubbish skills-sets and can't execute under pressure. This is why the major nations are never worried about playing us, and the (other) minor nations are always sniffing an upset. IMO this is the result of the 'talent identification/high performance' approach and the 'academy system' that plucks talented youngsters out of school instead of making them prove themselves and their skills in a gruelling week in-week out club system. Our players are, in the main, pampered, protected athletes who have spent most of their lives being told how 'talented' and 'special' they are without having to prove it (and then believing it!). Oh to have the NZ or SA system where you don't get placed at the top of the tree (like in Australia) you fight your way to the top by proving that you are the best in your position. It's time to stop blaming Eddie Jones, and realise that our current ranking of 9 is commensurate with the skill level of the player pool we draw from, and instead be excited at the prospect of the occasional upset against a top 5 team, and ecstatic at the thought of making it out of our pool at each World Cup...maybe we should get a Public Holiday proclaimed if we do!
Hughi
Roar Rookie
I don't know why all the negative vibes, you're not in the zone. Of course, you don't show your hand in the lead-up matches. If you show you're a good team early what chance do you have? Jones is a master tactician, we could even lose a few more just as long as we don't show our real ability too early. It is all part of the long game, just you wait and see. Bringing all youth into the team and removing the leadership group has given us a blank canvas to paint our strategy game by game, that's why we look disjointed because each player is practicing a different game style for future games. Genises operate this way so you don't see the real team till later.
Footy Franks
Roar Rookie
There is still time for Eddie to pull an Eddie Out of his hat. He is enjoying himself, why wouldn’t he . His remuneration is in no matter what.