David Leggat: New Wallabies coach will need cupful of luck

Australian rugby lost two key elements from their national side yesterday.

Coach Eddie Jones was sacked and it's a given his captain, George Gregan, will go too.

The umbilical cord which has tied Jones to Geregan since their Brumbies days will surely pull Gregan down with his boss.

No new Wallaby coach in their right mind, with the World Cup less than two years away, will continue with Gregan, who has looked well overdue for a ride to the premises of a certain Mr Knacker for the last year.

We've all heard the hoary old line about there being only two types of coaches - the sacked and the about-to-be-sacked.

There are those who are able - through the quality of their work and their players' performances - to leave on their own terms with head high and reputation intact.

Jones' predecessor, Rod Macqueen, was one of those.

He steered Australia to their second World Cup triumph, in Cardiff in 1999, and stepped aside for Jones two years later. Macqueen holds a place at Australian rugby's top table. Jones won't.

His big mistake, having done terrifically to get Australia to the final in Sydney two years ago, was not to get tough and plan ahead. Thus Gregan remains, and Australia's idea of a scrum is embarrassing.

The memory of their backward slide at Twickenham last month will live long. Many a front rower who has had to put up with Bill Young and company working lenient, uncomprehending referees like a three-card trick since the last World Cup will have silently rejoiced at a long-awaited comeuppance.

The job of sorting that awful eight will fall to his successor, most likely Ewan McKenzie, the old tighthead from 1991 World Cup glory days and now Waratahs Super 14 coach.

If so, good luck, champ, because you've been dealt a dodgy hand to turn things around in less than two years.

Nick Farr-Jones, another of the ex-Wallabies from happier times, said yesterday it was possible to rebuild in time for the World Cup, but it won't be easy. Dead right, Nick. For a start, a coach needs the base elements to be in good working order.

And as Jones eyes a Japanese sunset how should he be remembered?

An amiable bloke, with that wily touch all good coaches need, who for a time got the best out of ordinary working materials, but failed to bite the bullet when it was needed.

Should he have gone? Eight losses in nine tests says yes and, in the Australian Rugby Union's eyes, the move had to be made now. Any closer to the next World Cup and no one in their right mind would have touched the job with a corner flag.

Now a new man gets his opportunity. Just as happens when a long-serving player retires.

As a door closes on one, it opens for another, just as it does for several Australian cricketers this week.

The Australian team which strides on to Eden Park today in the opening ODI in the Chappell-Hadlee series has some unfamiliar faces. A few old stagers have been handed their cards in the last couple of months.

But you'd bet their replacements will have the quality most young Aussie cricketers have in spades: hunger.

And the indications are that attempts during the Ashes series to present a more amiable public face are being put back in the locker. Winning nice guys? Nah, tried that mate, didn't work.

The third test win over the West Indies in Adelaide produced a good dose of old-fashioned grumpiness, from captain down. Now, unlike the Ashes series in England, the Aussies are winning again.

New Zealand would be wise to expect tough, desperately competitive opponents. And ain't that always the way with this lot?

At the same time, they should fancy their chances. The Black Caps will need to play with their own bit of that Aussie cussedness, a spot of the stuff their coach, John Bracewell, used to bring to the national team.

Shane Bond makes his first appearance at home since his comeback; Daniel Vettori takes the reins; Chris Cairns is back against the opponents he most relishes facing. The makings of a decent day out.