“It’s fun, it’s fun being back in Australia.” That was Eddie Jones nearly three months ago in an interview with The Good, The Bad & The Rugby: Australia podcast, on his return as Wallabies coach. How things can change in the space of just 12 weeks.
After a history-making loss to Fiji, an embarrassing defeat to Wales and a new record low ranking of 10th in the world, their fate is seemingly sealed and an early exit from the World Cup is now surely a formality.
Victory over Portugal in Saint-Étienne on Sunday prolonged Australian interest in the competition, but should Fiji avoid defeat to Portugal in their final game at the end of what is going to be a long week for the Wallabies, that will be the end of the road.
Aside from Portugal, in 2023 the Wallabies have managed to beat only Georgia and finished dead-last in the Rugby Championship without winning a game. The green and gold faithful have been left wondering, is this rock bottom or can things get even worse?
The next question facing them and officials at Moore Park HQ is undeniable – is Jones’s time up already? There can be no sugar-coating it, the coach’s appointment has been a disaster of their own making from start to finish.
After his ugly axing by England, Rugby Australia (RA) thought the pugnacious 63-year-old would be the code’s saviour. Those officials clearly forgot what happened in 2005 during his first painful removal as Wallabies boss. They were wrong and history is now repeating itself.
Everything about Jones’s tenure since January – from the public battle with the NRL and Peter V’landys to his team’s performances on the field, his selections and his spat with reporters at Sydney airport ahead of the team’s departure for France – has been ugly. It’s been one bad look after another.
Most recently, there has been the report that Jones had been in touch with Japan before the World Cup about a potential return to the Cherry Blossoms’ set up, despite having a five-year deal with the Wallabies. When asked about the report, Jones said: “I don’t know what you are talking about mate.” But if it were to be confirmed, it is troubling.
On Monday RA boss Phil Waugh said despite the Wallabies’ “bitterly disappointing” World Cup campaign, axing Jones was not the answer, saying RA remained “committed to Eddie”.
Jones took an inexperienced and under-strength Wallabies squad to France with one eye clearly on the Lions tour in 2025 and a home tournament in 2027. It was not about competing in France now but about building for the future and gaining experience to compete later – a strategy that should be unfathomable for the two-time William Webb Ellis trophy winners.
In early July he said that playmakers Bernard Foley and Quade Cooper were going to be key players for him. “Dan Carter played his best rugby at 35. Those guys are going to be important, they’re going to be really important.” He of course left both Foley and Cooper at home.
His selections have been nothing short of odd. Why did he leave the experienced pair out, along with Jed Holloway? Why was captain Michael Hooper ignored, while other injured players were named in the World Cup squad instead? Why was no replacement called for the injured youngster Max Jorgensen? Why have Australia had five different captains in less than a year? Only the one-time school principal knows.
During the tournament too Jones has chopped and changed his team considerably, never building a solid combination in the key positions. Carter Gordon has been in and out, Ben Donaldson at fullback and then 10, Andrew Kellaway out and then in.
It continued for the game against Portugal, with experienced centre Samu Kerevi dumped and a rookie centre combination in Izaia Perese and Lalakai Foketi starting. The amount of soft tissue injuries his charges have accumulated in training has been alarming. Concussion to Tate McDermott early in the tournament didn’t help matters, nor injuries to Will Skelton and Taniela Tupou, but neither have the coach’s strange decisions.
Even before the tournament in France, Jones could have made overtures to beef up his selection options. Perhaps he could have enticed Taqele Naiyaravoro, Sean McMahon, Liam Gill and Rory Arnold back from Japan. Get Ben Meehan and Dan O’Brien from England. Or convince Tolu Latu to return from France. All would have made the Wallabies stronger at the World Cup.
Instead, Jones has plodded on and tried to take the heat on himself and not his players. He declared after the Wales game that he was “fully responsible”. It was a refrain he repeated after the Portugal game. Rugby Australia is to hold an external review into Jones and the Wallabies’ World Cup nightmare in the coming weeks.
They will decide whether to bin Jones or back him. It remains to be seen which way they go but some sanity, some normality, some decorum must return to the Wallabies set-up. The fun is over.
