Wallabies Coach Eddie Jones looks on during The Rugby Championship match between the Australia Wallabies and Argentina. Photo / Getty Images.
Wallabies Coach Eddie Jones looks on during The Rugby Championship match between the Australia Wallabies and Argentina. Photo / Getty Images.
Elliott Smith analyses the biggest talking points from the world of rugby.
An observation...
If you’re trying to mount a case for Eddie Jones and the Wallabies to win tomorrow night in Melbourne, based on the evidence produced by the side this year it may not even get to trial.
But Eddie Jones has done funny things to the All Blacks – and other sides in the past when their backs have been against the wall.
Jones has proved himself time and again as a coach who is the master of deflection but also the master of building a narrative, whether in the media or internally in his team, to make them believe they can pull off the impossible.
We’ve already seen his two test defeats and the storylines after largely centre on Jones’ comments in the post-match media conference rather than a tatty Wallabies performance, which especially in the loss to the Springboks was one of their worst in recent memory.
After that game he labelled a reporter a “smart arse” and that diverted some eyes away from the train crash that had unfolded in the 80 minutes prior, then after the loss to Argentina in Sydney, it was about how the All Blacks should “look out”.
Look out they might this week, but it shouldn’t be based on the previous two performances the Wallabies have handed in. Yes, there were stories delving into why the Wallabies had lost on both occasions, but it was the quotes of Jones that certainly left more of a mark post-game.
If they lose tomorrow night, then it’ll be about building for the World Cup.
Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones during a training session. Photo / Photosport
An explanation...
I saw a close-up example of his ability to deflect back in 2019 at the World Cup in Japan, when in the week of the semifinal between England and the All Blacks Jones – who inserted himself unexpectedly into a media conference on a Tuesday alongside his assistant and ex-All Blacks coach John Mitchell - dished up a surreal media conference where he called New Zealand rugby journalists “fans with keyboards”, suggested his side had been spied on at training that day and then claimed the pressure would be chasing the All Blacks “down the street”.
Mitchell didn’t get a single question about coaching against his former side and country. It was mind games at its best, created a ton of headlines and took the English rugby scribes’ attention away from his own side for a couple of days. Another distraction. That week they backed it up.
Australia have beaten the All Blacks in Australia in every World Cup year of the professional era – apart from 2003. Even the 2011 and 2015 classes dropped games across the ditch in those years before going on to lift the World Cup. That’s not to say I’m predicting a win for the Wallabies – statistics can prove anything, as 40 per cent of people can attest.
A question...
The one coach who didn’t beat the All Blacks pre-tournament in a World Cup year in his own backyard? Eddie Jones. Who then masterminded the semifinal win to evict the All Blacks later that year, which I suspect he preferred.
He’d probably take defeat tomorrow night if it meant Australia won if the two sides were to meet again in a quarter-final in Paris.
