Professional sport moves on fast. Particularly in Australia where this weekend is all about the eagerly awaited NRL and AFL grand finals. Will the Broncos beat the Panthers? Reckon Collingwood will tame the Brisbane Lions? In terms of comparative menus a potentially meaningless pool game between the Wallabies and Portugal on Sunday is the stale Vegemite sandwich no one really wants to eat.
But the show must go on, particularly the Eddie Jones Show. Or the Eddie Jones Show Trial as it is becoming. Barely an hour currently goes by without another former Wallaby lobbing in his 10 cents about the head coach or the diminished state of Australian rugby in the wake of last Sunday’s lamentable 40-6 defeat by Wales. The blowback has been intense and is ongoing.
Which is why there is still a healthy scattering of journos at Australia’s team hotel, out in the sticks a good half hour outside Saint-Étienne, for the latest update from Planet Eddie. The village of Saint-Galmier is not usually a global media mecca but Jones, right now, could go for a walk in the Nullarbor Plain and encounter a TV crew eager to enquire about his next career move.
It does not make for a relaxed, cheery vibe on either side of the barricades. The Aussie press pack are a friendly bunch but it has been a stressful few weeks. Is Eddie chatting to Japan? Is he staying put? What does re-hiring him say about the cool-headed, sage judgment of Rugby Australia’s mandarins? Sitting next to a wine fridge in a converted bar in the back of beyond, Jones sounded more than a touch weary and who could blame him?
The sense of deja vu, for anyone from England, was everywhere. And if Jones felt powerless during the final days of his tenure as England head coach, it is the case once more. Rugby Australia is not set to commence a full review until after this tournament has concluded but it would appear there has been a cooling in the relationship between Jones and his employers, not entirely generated by the national side’s record this year of P8 W1 L7.
Quite why Japan would want to hire a coach with just one Test victory in his last 12 Tests in charge of two major nations over the past 11 months is another issue but whatever discussions may or may not have taken place – Jones’s denial of the original story in the Sydney Morning Herald linking him with Japan seems to revolve around the precise definition of the word “interview” – the heat is steadily intensifying at home.
Hence the steady stream of non Portugal-themed questions. Was he still up for the Wallaby gig? “I am 100% committed to the job and I’ve said that previously.” What about being interviewed by Japan? “The only thing I am concentrating on is the Portugal game. If you want to ask about anything else, don’t ask.” So is that a yes or a no? “I said no, mate. I said no previously.” Does he still want to be in charge when Australia host the 2027 Rugby World Cup? “That’s definitely an option.”
More illuminating, maybe, was his answer when quizzed as to what his constant refrain about “taking full responsibility” actually meant. “If people have got a problem with results they come to me, right? And at the end of the tournament, I will stand by that. If there needs to be a fall guy for the World Cup, then it’s obviously me. When you become a head coach for a team, you take on that responsibility. The playing group has been absolutely fantastic, I couldn’t ask any more from them. So, therefore, if there needs to be someone responsible for the performance, it’s me.”
By now the atmosphere was almost frostier outside the wine fridge than inside. The nearest equivalent in World Cup terms would have been the final week of England’s ill-fated campaign in 2015 when they were already out of the tournament on home soil but still had to play a dead rubber against Uruguay in Manchester. Then as now, attending the ritual press conferences felt like walking in on an autopsy.
One of the theories doing the rounds is that Australian rugby might now be in better shape had the Wallabies not overachieved at that same 2015 World Cup and ended up reaching the final. True or not, there is no obvious quick fix to the assorted structural and financial problems eroding the game’s profile in Australia. Jones clearly has his views but is keeping them to himself for now. “It’s not for me to talk about those issues and I don’t want anyone to think we’re making excuses for the team.”
Nor, he insisted, would he have changed any of his selections in hindsight, despite the fact his young squad have transparently lacked depth and experience under pressure. Je ne regrette rien?
Listening to Jones concede that the influential Samu Kerevi had not been his usual self in France, compounding the injury absences of the heavyweight Will Skelton and Taniela Tupou, it is also clear that Australia have had limited luck. Mercifully, though, it will all soon be over. Broncos v Penrith anyone?
