All Blacks v Wallabies: Eddie Jones shoulders responsibility after blowout loss but remains positive about Wallabies’ potential

Eddie Jones took some positives out of the Wallabies' loss to the All Blacks at the MCG. Photo / Photosport

Eddie Jones has no problem shouldering the blame for the Wallabies’ recent woes.

Since replacing Dave Rennie at the helm and being tasked with steering the Australians on their World Cup campaign, success has been hard to come by.

That was compounded on Saturday night in a 38-7 demolition at the hands of the All Blacks at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It was a test in which a few moments of light for the Wallabies pierced through a shroud of black.

The All Blacks earned the upper hand early and played the majority of the game on their terms, particularly in the last 20 minutes.

With the match concluding the Rugby Championship, the Wallabies finished the tournament without a win, scoring fewer than half the number of tries they conceded and with a points differential of minus 65 – 38 points worse than third-placed Argentina.

With just a week before the Wallabies meet the All Blacks for the second Bledisloe Cup test in Dunedin, Jones did see some positives to take away from his side’s performance but took responsibility for the way the test panned out.

“If you want the headline ‘the problem’s Jones’ then use that. I’m happy for you to use that,” Jones said.

“But every game has a context around it. If we did a couple of things better at the start of the game and got points on the board, then the last 20 minutes wouldn’t have been what it was like. We ran out of gas in the last 20.”

The Wallabies were on the back foot from the outset, with Shannon Frizell on the mark to clean up the scraps of a Tate McDermott knock-on on his own goal line, caused by a crunching Scott Barrett tackle.

But they shook that off quickly and went down the other end to score through impressive loose forward Rob Valetini who forced his way over from close range; Carter Gordon slotting the conversion to put them ahead 7-5 inside 10 minutes.

For decent periods, the Wallabies showed there is a team capable of testing the All Blacks somewhere waiting to be discovered. But discipline issues, a couple of yellow cards, and a lack of consistency across the park saw the visitors take over.

The result was disheartening for the Wallabies faithful, and they also saw props Allan Alaalatoa (calf) and Taniela Tupou (rib) sustain injuries.

With the pair likely set to spend some time on the sidelines, Jones will have to dip further into his youthful pool of talent for next weekend’s test in Dunedin, after making widespread changes for the test including handing Gordon his first test start in the No 10 jersey.

The rotation in the squad was a topic of discussion for Jones after the match.

“We’ve got an unsuccessful history at the moment and we need to turn that around, so we need to find players who can do it. We’ve got to find players who want to give a bit more, and we’ll find those,” he said.

“I’ve coached teams like this before and you can turn it around. I saw enough to know we can be a bloody good team. I know it doesn’t look like it, you’re sitting there thinking ‘shit, what’s this bloke talking about?’ but I’m telling you, we can turn it around and be a very good team. For the fans, they have the keep being hopeful, keep praying to whatever God they’ve got that we turn it around. We will. Don’t worry, we will.”