Eddie Jones said he wanted a “robust performance” from his new-look Wallabies. He got an insipid debacle. He told media he had coached his men to play like “mongrel dogs”. He delivered a mob of mewling pussycats. He promised fans this week was the first step toward a “smash and grab” on rugby’s greatest prize. Instead, 62-days out from the World Cup, a season that promised so much has kicked off with disaster.
After all the hoopla about Jones returning as the saviour of Australian rugby, his Wallabies barely fired a shot in their 43-12 walloping by South Africa in Pretoria. Despite scoring the Test’s first try with fast hands to Marika Koroibete, they imploded to leak 43 unanswered points, falling to their heaviest defeat against South Africa in 15 years and getting the much-vaunted Eddie Era: Part 2 off to the worst possible start. That this defeat came against a second-string Springboks side, with the first XV dispatched to New Zealand to counter the All Blacks, only salted the wound.
Not only were Jones’s players ruthlessly exposed, so were he and his coaching staff. Australia’s discipline was as awful as it was last season, gifting 11 penalties to three, including two yellow cards that resulted in penalty tries. The defence, under ex-NRL star Brett Hodgson, lacked line-speed and intensity, as Australia lost every collision. The attack – a key cog in Jones’s desire to return to ‘the Wallaby Way’ of hard, fast, feral front-foot rugby – was nigh non-existent with 24 gain-line carries to South Africa’s 70. The 33% possession Australia scraped out, they squandered with kicks or fumbles. In over 80-minutes, they spent just 47 seconds in the opposition quarter.
Most of Jones’s selection gambles backfired. Super-boot utility Reece Hodge, a surprise recall at inside-centre, frittered eight-points in the first half by missing every one of the three shots on offer. Sorcerer five-eighth Quade Cooper, back at last from Japan and a long injury layoff, had his magic hands full tackling Springbok buffaloes and, with halfback Nic White box-kicking at every opportunity, barely saw the ball. Ex-NRL weapon Suliasi Vunivalu, finally given his chance by Jones to start on the wing after three seasons of middling form and injury, had an outright shocker.
At 1350-metres above sea level, Loftus Stadium was always going to be a dizzying arena to start a shorter Rugby Championship campaign ramping into a World Cup. Many of the younger Wallabies had never experienced such lung-busting altitude or the hostility of 50,089 bellowing ‘Boks fans in a fortress unbreached by the men in gold for six decades. But Jones, who plotted South Africa’s 2007 World Cup victory, surely knew what was coming. He lost all his five Tests on the high veldt in his 2001-05 term as Wallabies coach. But if it taught him anything, none of it showed here.
Dire as this defeat was for the Wallabies, a few sunbeams crept through the murk. Live-wire five-eighth Carter Gordon, 22, made a dynamic debut. Brought on with 10 minutes left and little to lose, the Melbourne Mullet sparked Australia’s best attacking waves all night to end a dismal day on a bright note, kicking infield for Koroibete then backing up to scoot 50-metres for a terrific try. Another 22-year-old debutant, Brumbies flanker Tom Hooper, also shone. Before he was subbed off with a shoulder injury after 30 minutes, Jones’s “big lump of meat” was dominant in the line-outs.
If the pack is bolstered by the return of star props Taniela Tupou and Angus Bell, the backline brings in wing sensation Mark Nawaqanitawase to partner perennial best afield Koroibete and Samu Kerevi replaces Hodge at centre, the side can rebound. Throw ‘Flash’ Gordon the keys to the big gold Kingswood and it may even excel. But it has to happen fast. Having fallen to earth from such altitude, the Wallabies have only a few days to recover and reset before they host Argentina on Saturday in Sydney. Los Pumas, coached by ex-Wallabies mentor Michael Cheika (Jones’s old club teammate), will be equally desperate, having lost 41-12 to New Zealand overnight in Mendoza.
Although Australia have four more Tests to get it right before their World Cup opener on September 9, it will take more than being “outplayed everywhere” to wink out the twinkle in Eddie’s eyes. “The positive was the first 20 minutes – we played with a bit of pace, we tried to shift turnover ball and we looked dangerous,” Jones reflected. “But we weren’t able to sustain that effort. We got beaten at the set-piece, beaten at the gain-line, beaten in the air. When you don’t win those contests, it’s a long day at the office. If we fix those issues we will be back in the money against Argentina.”
