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PARIS – When Hamish McLennan welcomed Eddie Jones back to the helm of the Wallabies this year he compared the 63-year-old coach to a “tough feral, mongrel.”
Jones was to be the Pitbull putting the snarl back into the Wallabies set-up after the Kumbaya Dave love-in. In reality, Jones has rolled over for a tummy tickle – surrendering a World Cup campaign along the way. And for what, the fool’s gold of a glittering future?
The World Cup has two weeks to run, and Jones is back in Sydney while old rivals England, New Zealand and South Africa are in the final four along with Argentina – a nation Australia has lost to just eight times in 39 Tests.
On Tuesday Jones faced the media and said a lot things those of us who have been asking questions have heard ad nauseum – justifying the disaster that befell his team in France, tripping over his own tongue.
He is like The Pilgrim from the song by American country singer Kris Kristofferson – “A walkin’ contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction, takin’ every wrong direction on his lonely way back home.”
There was one telling moment in the talk of alignment and Japan, that showed just what a hash he’s made of it all.
Jones was asked who he thought might win the tournament – one he will be watching from afar.
“I love the Kiwis. There’s two sorts of games at the moment at the World Cup. And a lot of it depends on the referee,” Jones told reporters.
“You saw Wayne Barnes referee the contest and continuity really well which allowed quick ball which allowed the Kiwis to play some fantastic attacking rugby, as did Ireland.
Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones speaks to the media during a Rugby Australia press conference at Coogee Oval on October 17, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
“If a referee such as Wayne Barnes has got the semi final and final for the Kiwis they’re a great chance.”
He famously doesn’t sleep, so he should still have plenty of time to prep for the independent review into what went down in France.
Some significant time should be spent on his decisions to select young players and plunge them hopelessly out of their depth. Having repeatedly said he has no regrets about it – despite seeing Carter Gordon flounder under pressure before scapegoating him – it’s unlikely to.
Jones was never really brought in to win the 2027 World Cup and blow off this year’s edition – but he decided rashly that was the path to take, and the fans at home and on the road be damned.
It was a loss against New Zealand, where Quade Cooper failed to see Australia home in Dunedin that is at the core of his over-reaction.
“We weren’t good enough to beat the All Blacks. We had them on toast 17-3 and we couldn’t finish the game off. Let’s be quite factual about that,” said Jones on Tuesday.
“I just thought we’re not going to get anywhere with that group of players. Probably thought they’d maximized themselves out. I always go back to the definition of insanity – keep doing the same thing and expect different results. So I tried something different, went with youth and it will have favourable results further down the track.”
Between November 2021 and August 2022, New Zealand, under Ian Foster, lost six of eight Tests to leave his job in peril. Obits were written for senior players with every loss. Sam Cane was apparently cooked. Where is that guy now?
Sam Cane of New Zealand and Tom Hooper of Australia. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)
Of course there is a big difference between Foster and Jones. The New Zealander was given this tournament but no more. With no real future beyond France all he could do was seize the day and he backed the old guys to do it with him – Cane, Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick were all immense in the quarter-final win over Ireland. Big game players in their proper positions.
Jones, in contrast, dropped the knife on the past and the ball on the present.
New Zealand have been a better team than Australia for as long as Jones was absent from Australian rugby. No one will argue Jones had the cattle to win the whole thing. But to see England scrape through to last four and Australia surrender should pain Jones more than it appears to.
His justification is the choices he made are for the good of the long-term health of the code. But on Tuesday, with media asking with straight faces if “rugby is dying”, it seemed obvious that the short term is a bigger worry.
“I don’t think it’s dying. But I think we’re in a difficult situation. If I look at when I left to now, like the difference between the NRL and the AFL to where I was, is massive. That’s definitely affected our talent pool,” Jones said.
“We’ve got to work harder in those areas. We’ve not only got to fix things at the top level, we’ve got to fix things at the talent identification, recruitment, development level. We’ve got to get more players in the game better players in the game and at the moment the NRL is stealing them all.”
Jones is a man of contradictions – in public at least. He talks about backing youth – but only some youth. He refuses to discuss his selections of players who aren’t picked. The fact we don’t know why he didn’t take Len Ikitau to the World Cup with a minor injury but others were on the plane, drives some fans nuts.
Those contradictions were in full glare again on Tuesday, when he was talking about alignment in the game.
“I’m not an administrator, so I don’t know how to do it. I’m just a basic coach,” pleaded Jones. “I go out there with a whistle, blow the whistle, yell and scream, put my arm around the player every now and then. So I can’t tell you how to do that and I won’t try to tell you how to do it – it’s for smarter people than me.”
Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones speaks to the media during a Rugby Australia press conference at Coogee Oval on October 17, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Next minute, he was trying to tell us how to do it, and making sure we knew he wants to be deeply involved in the process.
“My commitment is to put Australia in a better place, and you’ve got to have things operating to put it in a better place, and part of it is making sure we get better alignment. I’ve got to help drive that with the CEO and the chairman,” said Jones.
In France I asked Jones if he would consider a job “upstairs” working as a coach of coaches or in strategy. Something that might suit someone more focused on 2027 than the right here right now.
It was the same answer.
“I’m not an administrator, like I love being out on the pitch,” said Jones. “I love the game. I don’t love politics. I’m not a politician at all. Never have been, never will be.”
Rugby Australia is in the process of hiring a high performance director, which Jones believes is crucial.
And that leads us to one more big contradiction.
“There’s a need for someone to be looking after tomorrow. That’s really important,” said Jones in France.
“The national coach looks after today but there’s a need for someone to be strategic about planning what’s needed for Australian rugby to be sustainably successful, and that’s where you need a high performance director.”
So who in this scenario was the coach “looking after today” while Jones was picking a squad for 2027?