By Iain Payten
New Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has rejected the theory of “horse guy” Peter V’landys that rugby is too boring for league players to consider defecting, urging the NRL boss to leave the TAB and take up his invitation to attend some Super Rugby games.
Jones responded to V’Landy’s critique of rugby as he laid out his vision for rugby to regain lost support in Australia, affirmed his belief that the Wallabies can win the 2023 Rugby World Cup and left the door open for a new captain to be appointed that is not Michael Hooper or James Slipper.
In his first press conference as Wallabies coach, Jones was also coy on whether Japan-based Quade Cooper featured in his plans as a No.10 for the national team.
But in what looms as an entertaining running battle, Jones couldn’t resist firing back at V’landys for his take on rugby containing enough downtime for players to take a phone on the field and scroll social media for 20 minutes. V’landys was responding to Jones’ revelations in the Herald that he will look to recruit three NRL players with rugby backgrounds.
“I think he’s been probably sitting in TAB too much mate, I encourage him to get out of the TAB and go and watch some Super Rugby, I’ll invite him to a game,” Jones said when asked about V’Landys.
When later discussing his plan for increased success and engagement to revive the public interest in Australian rugby, Jones fired another subtle shot at the NRL boss.
Eddie Jones and Peter V’landys have started up a war of words.Credit:Fairfax
“If we can play some good rugby, people will want to watch us play. And if we win, then we’ll be in a better position in the media, so this 15 people we’ve got now [on the Zoom call] will be 30 people, because all the rugby league journalists want to be part of it,” Jones said.
“We might even get, what’s his name, the horse guy to a media conference. V’Landys.”
Whether V’landys will continue the light-hearted banter with Jones remains to be seen but the new Wallabies coach wasn’t backing down from suggestions Rugby Australia will look to recruit league players.
Jones re-iterated his priority was to develop rugby players first, using the lure of the 2025 Lions series, and a home Rugby World Cup in 2027 as a weapon against the superior money on offer in the NRL in the short term.
Eddie Jones has been to the Rugby World Cup as a head coach with Australia, Japan and England.Credit:Getty
“We’ve got some advantages there, and therefore we might be able to get some of the players who’ve left to play rugby league and wearing different colours, and get them in better colours,” Jones said.
“And the third step is, I think the chairman [Hamish McLennan] is pretty keen on pinching a few from the other side, so we’ll see how we go.”
Jones, who is set to leave London next week to fly home, said he would wait until he had “walked the floor” and spoken with players before deciding on whether Slipper, Hooper or a new candidate would be Wallabies captain. In 2016, Jones named bad boy hooker Dylan Hartley to be his new skipper, and they won 18 straight Tests.
“Whenever you change coaches or change the team environment, as what’s happened, the captaincy becomes even more important. We need someone who can quickly galvanise the troops [and] work closely with me because every captain and every coach combination is different. So the right captain for a particular coach is not necessarily the right captain for another coach,” he said.
Michael Hooper at Wallabies training.Credit:Andrew Phan/Wallabies Media
Jones said he had an open mind regarding his best Wallabies 23, and urged players to select themselves via compelling Super Rugby form. He sidestepped questions on the whether the Giteau Law should be expanded, but also indicated a strong admiration for France-based Will Skelton as “at his best he’s probably one of the most influential players in European club rugby”.
But in discussing all the candidates for the Wallabies No.10 jersey, Jones left Cooper off a rollcall containing Tane Edmed, Ben Donaldson, Bernard Foley, Noah Lolesio and even James O’Connor.
Asked for clarity about Cooper – who Dave Rennie had identified as his World Cup lynchpin – Jones said he would have to get back playing after an Achilles tendon injury.
“You’ve got to be available and as it stands when Super Rugby starts, he won’t be,” Jones said.
“We’d be hopeful he would be and playing in Japan isn’t a concern, only that at the moment there’s the Giteau law and there’s a number of players we can use so we have to be cognisant of that, but he’ll be one of the blokes I meet.”
Jones said fixing the Wallabies’ discipline problems of the last few years would be based around training the players to be adaptable to the currently varied ways the game is being officiated by any group of match officials on the day.
Jones said he believed he is a better coach since he last coached the Wallabies between 2001 and 2005, and asked about the relative fall in support for rugby since then, he replied by saying he wanted to win back lost fans.
“I’ve heard guys who I’ve coached, they tell me their sons don’t watch rugby anymore,” he said.
“That happens when you’re not connected to your fans, the winning process, part of it is how we conduct ourselves. There’s a clear message to become a team of the rugby community.”
‘He will shake things up’: Ex-England captain says Jones will transform Wallabies quickly
Former England captain Chris Robshaw believes Eddie Jones will make the Wallabies more dangerous at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, by improving the players and instilling a confidence currently missing in the national side.
Robshaw had a unique position in Jones’ swift rebuild of English rugby in 2016, having captained the England team in a disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign on home soil in 2015, where a loss to Michael Cheika’s Wallabies in the pool stages ensured they would not make the play-offs.
Jones, who was subsequently hired to take over from coach Stuart Lancaster, had even criticised Robshaw as just a toiling “club player” in a newspaper column he was writing during the World Cup.
“So as soon he got announced, I was thinking ‘OK, that’s me done’,” Robshaw said.
“But early on we had a very open conversation behind closed doors, and he said if you can go away and work on bits of your game, there will be a place for you in the team, not as captain but as an important player for me.”
Robshaw played on under Jones and featured in the record 18-match winning streak that England then enjoyed, during which the team won the Six Nations in 2016 and 2017 and beat the Wallabies 3-0 in Australia.
Chris Robshaw playing against Australia at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.Credit:AP
“You have got yourself a very good coach who can definitely come in and shake things up and also fix things quite quickly,” Robshaw said.
“He is proud of his Australian heritage and he definitely wants to help them move forward. From an English point of view, it is a bit of a shame because you look at what he’s done in World Cups and stuff like that.”
There are less than eight months until the World Cup begins, and Jones will be in charge for just five Tests before then. But Robshaw believes his former coach has the track record to produce a first-year bounce for the Wallabies as well.
“From where they currently are … and from the position they were in over the last couple of months over here, I think he will be able to get them up to shape, and if nothing else, definitely improve them quickly,” Robshaw said.
Former England captain Chris Robshaw, who works with Sage, the Official Insights Partner of Six Nations Rugby.Credit:James Robinson
“He will definitely push the players to be better and from a blunt point of view he will make them better.
“He will definitely shake things up there. Australian rugby needs something at the moment, if we’re honest. They’re not in their best place. They had a tough tour over here in our autumn series, but if there is a man who can fix things quickly, it is Eddie.”
Robshaw, who is an ambassador for the Six Nations’ Insights partner Sage, said Australian rugby appears to be lacking belief.
“It’s just confidence because like I said, you’ve got good players, you’ve got staff and momentum is a massive thing in sport, and especially when you’re on the road,” Robshaw said.
Wallabies players after their one-point defeat to Italy on the Spring Tour.Credit:Getty Images
“I think for Eddie if he can come in and give them that bit of momentum and that bit of confidence, I think he’ll be able to get him back on out to where Australian sport generally is and it’s pretty successful, it’s pretty combative.”
Robshaw said Jones’ methods centre around effective man management, high standards and a challenging work ethic that always keeps players on their toes.
“There were tests along the way, I remember in our first camp where we had 6am walkthroughs,” he said.
“But when we got there, there were no coaches. I am sure there cameras hidden around to monitor “what’s the mindset of these guys? Are they going to be professional and get straight on with it or are they going to wait 10 minutes, muck around, kick a ball and go home?”
“It is those types of things where he will give you a bit of freedom and go ‘what level are these guys at, and how far can I push them to get better’?”
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