Opinion
Australian rugby supporters are on their knees after a humiliating Rugby World Cup campaign. The players are undercooked, the decisions in the top office unfathomable and the pathways feeding into the gold jersey have been failing for decades.
Eddie Jones has a lot to answer for in this historic World Cup exit, but so do Rugby Australia and Hamish McLennan who made the fatal mistake of appointing Eddie in a World Cup year.
The unrealistic expectation on Jones to turn a 42 per cent winning side into a World Cup contender in eight months was insanity.
Whether the flames of this insane proposition were fanned by Jones’ ego or whether it was what he truly believed is irrelevant – the result is the result, and the slow car crash has come to an end.
He was bullish in defeat but Jones cannot leave, nor should he be fired.
Eddie Jones. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
The systemic issues plaguing Australian rugby have been dilapidating the sport for the better part of two decades, Jones just happens to be the one holding the bag when the lights came on.
There appears to be contradictory and relatively black and white rhetoric floating around, which is making for a confused discourse.
Either Jones is a good coach who would’ve ‘done well enough’ to appease the rugby public had it not been for his selections, or he is a bad coach, and he was never going to achieve anything positive for Australian rugby.
There is a third line of thinking which could be pursued, simply that Australian rugby without its Will Skeltons and Taniela Tupous are not currently better than a 10th world ranking and a pool stage exit.
Australian Super Rugby teams haven’t won anything of merit since 2014, and the Wallabies have been World Cup finalists twice and semi-finalists once in 20 years and five tournaments, one of which came under Jones himself.
The Wallabies have always been able to scrape a decent team together from the cream of the crop of the Super sides, but the fumes have run out and the well is dry.
Jones has turned a side with a 42 per cent win rate into a 39 per cent one, the three point decline in the grand scheme of things should not be a rude shock to Wallabies supporters.
The point where systemic changes should’ve been rung was at the very latest seven years ago after a horror 2016 which followed an impeccable 2015 season. This was also two world-class coaches ago.
Eddie Jones with Samu Kerevi. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
A 56 per cent win rate under Robbie Deans from 2009-13, a 46 per cent under Ewen McKenzie up until 2014, and a 51 per cent under Michael Cheika up until the end of RWC 2019 is well short of what Jones achieved with England at his height of 72 per cent.
The job of revitalising rugby in Australia has only just begun, and Jones must work methodically to complete his vision of a 2027 World Cup hoist.
He must work with the Super Rugby teams to lift standards and to spread the church of rugby far and wide.
To do this, Jones’ must correct his two most fatal errors, and this is possible because they were circumstantial and will not persist for the 4 years of his remaining tenure.
Jones’ first fatal error he must correct was selecting his rag-tag bunch of assistant coaches; second, he picked youth, then un-taught the structures the rookies had just learned in their professional systems.
Jones could’ve stuck with Rennie’s crew but that’s not Jones style and it bit him in the arse.
The vision from Jones was long-term systemic change in ‘smash and grab’ clothing, this was exacerbated by the entire coaching cohort failing to nail their coaching niche.
The Wallabies attack under Jones, Jason Ryles and Brad Davis was blunt and at times had no discernible structure or apparent purpose.
Defence coach Brett Hodgson sculpted a narrow defence with a lack of rugby union specificity.
The piggies were slaughtered without the beef of Tupou and Skelton, because forwards coordinator Neal Hatley couldn’t wrangle nor instruct his band of colts to get them to anything more than a canter.
Lineout coach Dan Palmer couldn’t crack the whip hard enough to prevent his lineout from falling in on itself.
Maul consultant Pierre-Henry Broncan produced the most woeful mauling Australia has seen for years.
And the backline’s kicking was amateur under kicking consultant Berrick Barnes.
Nic White was kicking 50/22s long before he arrived, and Carter Gordon looked like a schoolboy who had barely put boot to ball, so what was it that Barnes was teaching?
The rest of the group from the learning coordinator to the psychologist failed in their remit to elevate the players and unlock their dormant 10 per cent, because the entire team has regressed.
The second fatal error was thinking he could have his cake and eat it in terms of gameplan and youth.
It’s one thing to unlearn something that is second nature, like for a Quade Cooper, Michael Hooper, or a Jed Holloway.
But for players who are only just getting into the professional game like Gordon, Ben Donaldson, Tom Hooper and Blake Schoupp who are yet to master the intricacies of a regimented gameplan, it was an own goal.
That’s not to say Jones’ plan wasn’t correct, it was.
Eddie Jones and Blake Schoupp. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Australian rugby players need to play smarter, need to be smarter, but it couldn’t be done with this team, in this timeframe.
Being calculated in the unstructured is something this Wallabies group and more broadly Australian rugby must improve at. However, a patchwork coaching group and batch of green players in a four month window was not the right time to try it.
The argument can be made “well we weren’t winning anything with the old players and structures” and that’s true, but the World Cup was not the right time to play with the heartstrings of rugby fans nor become a mad scientist.
He could’ve done one or the other but not both. Selected youth and played structured or picked experienced players and rely on their honed skills in the loose.
This piece is not to defend Jones’ choices because however he himself would like to spin it, he gave Australia the worst results the nation has ever experienced in the professional era. Even losing to Italy wasn’t this bad.
But when you realise there are no other world class coaches available, bite the bullet and admit Australian rugby has been tier two for the better part of a decade, it all kind of makes sense. That’s not to say it doesn’t hurt, but it’s more palatable.
Eddie Jones shakes hands with Nic White. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Jones gave Australian rugby the benefit of the doubt upon his return despite the recent run of results, but he quickly realised things were far worse than he had imagined.
The realisation made him throw a hail mary and in an attempt to force change at the wrong time, everything blew up in his face.
However, despite what Jones has been reported as doing (that interview with the JRFU), he wants Australian rugby to thrive, and he can with time bring the team back into the black.
But the systemic changes which are being tabled around the nation and at Rugby Australia must happen and must happen now.
If they do occur, Jones must stay and dig Australian rugby out of the hole it is in, because there is no one else who can save us from ourselves now.
The problems are bigger than Jones, bigger than anyone coach or their staff, so why make them the scapegoat?
Jones must stay, however he must select a much better coaching team, one that will keep his intrusive thoughts in check and one whose opinions he will respect. Because nothing worked in 2023 and ultimately that’s on him and the choices he made along the way.
Jones must stay, but he must do so with humility and grace because the grief he has given journalists in 2023 has been disgusting and the sideshow he has put the rugby public through has been a joke.
We don’t need a coach who is larger than life. We just need them to get results and Jones is the man to do it.
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.
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