Eddie Jones and his team from Australia will take on the All Blacks at the Rugby Championship on Saturday. Credit: Getty Images/William West
John Connolly was nicknamed 'The Knuckles' because of his former nightclub bouncer job, and the former Australia coach strongly disagrees with his assessment of Eddie Jones' return to the Wallabies '.
«Bloody comrade in misfortune,» Connolly speaks from Down Under. “How did we end up with Eddie again? He is full of it. He talks about a great game, but he plays terribly. He is a charlatan, he is an unsuccessful breeder. He was chosen as captain by the chairman, who had just taken over.”
Connolly replaced Jones as head coach of Australia for the first time in 2006 and had to deal with the shattered shell of a losing Wallaby team. eight out of nine tests.
“When I took over from Eddie, the players were like downtrodden sheepdogs,” Connolly said. “If you entered the room, they lowered their heads and were afraid to do anything. There was no leadership. There was no development. It was a complete void, which took almost a year to restore. I can't believe we made the same mistake again.»
Apart from any personal vendettas, there will be a lot of awkward situations in the Australian rugby boardroom right now leading to a double match Bledisloe Cup vs New Zealand.
Chairman Hamish McLennan staked most of his reputation on replacing Dave Rennie with Jones in January. There has always been a plan to bring Jones and his considerable intellectual property home after the World Cup. After Jones was sacked as England manager and, much to their distrust, Rugby Australia found out that the Rugby Football Union had not included a garden leave clause in Jones' pay, McLennan acted decisively.
Jones arrived with more baggage than Mariah Carey's world tour, but the trade-off is that he is the established winner who can make things happen in the short term. Well, at least it was a theory.
A 43-12 loss to the South African reserves, which was probably worse than anticipated, was followed by a 34-31 home loss to Argentina. They are now taking on the All Blacks team, which appears to be gaining momentum just in time for the World Cup. «If I were the All Blacks, I would beware,» Jones said immediately after losing to the Pumas — a masterclass in mismanagement of the game, which, as you can see below, led to Jones taking his frustrations out on the headset. «I can quite imagine we're playing against New Zealand.»
Eddie Jones drops his headphones.
Jones made similar defiant statements ahead of the game in South Africa: «It'll be better than the Ashes, buddy» — and promised a monumental backlash against the Cougars. Neither of these happened.
England fans will recognize many of these phrases, from promises of a «smashing approach» to quoting random, unverified statistics: «Rugby with possession is dead… You have 75 per cent of tries scored in three legs — 75 per cent.» «. The hesitation in selection will be just as familiar. Suliasi Vuniwalu is an example of this. Jones hailed the out-of-shape rugby league convert as «the best winger in the world» before selecting him against South Africa, only to have him removed from the team against Argentina. In the decider against New Zealand, seasoned midfielders Nick White and Quaid Cooper were replaced by the untested pairing of Tate McDermott and «Melbourne Mallet» Carter Gordon.
In part, Jones was hired to boost union status in Australia, where he is completely dwarfed by two league forces and Australian rules. Jones completed this part of his assignment, although not always for the right reasons. As the headline in the Sydney Morning Herald this week read: «We've got Entertaining Eddie, so where's his winning personality?»
A win over the All Blacks will drive out all the naysayers. Of course, McLennan had no doubts about his decision to go all-in against Jones. «The wolf pack needs to calm down.»
However, those howls will get even louder if Jones arrives at the World Championships with a 0-5 record, which is quite possible as their final warm-up is yet to come. against France. Jones was hired to bring the Wallabies back to their swagger. At the moment they are simply stunning.
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