New Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has indicated he’s unsatisfied with the current talent pool available for the side and converting New Zealanders could help solve the problem.
Jones spoke to Newstalk ZB’s D’Arcy Waldegrave earlier this week and presented a pessimistic view of the current Australian rugby union landscape, sayingeven taking the job was a hard decision.
“I didn’t want it [the job]. I made that quite clear... I wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. I had to be convinced it was the right thing to do.”
What convinced him was the challenge of turning around a team that hasn’t posted a winning international calendar year since 2019 - and only then courtesy of matches against Georgia, Uruguay, Fiji and Samoa around the Rugby World Cup.
“Well the biggest positive was just the opportunity to get Australian rugby in a better place. It’s obviously been a difficult time. They haven’t been doing as well as they would have liked and and you can’t knock back that opportunity.”
One tool available for Jones to use in that quest is searching far and wide for talent - a pursuit he says is active and includes the likes of rugby league players and New Zealanders.
When asked by Waldegrave if NRL players were a target for the Wallabies, Jones freely implied that Kiwis were being hunted down.
“We’re on the hunt, mate, don’t worry. We’re on the hunt.
“There’s plenty of good players here. Someone told me a stat the other day that 30 per cent of the NRL is now New Zealand players. So I might be able to pitch a few of yours mate, just change the colour of their passport and who knows?”
If Jones does manage to switch a New Zealand-born player directly from the NRL and into the Wallabies squad, he will make history as it’s never been done before.
In fact, the only player with a remotely similar pathway would be former NRL, AFL, Kangaroos and Wallabies star Karmichael Hunt (born in Auckland). However, Hunt was five-years removed from playing in the NRL when he switched from AFL to Super Rugby in 2015. It then took two years for Hunt to make the first of his six appearances for the Wallabies.
Karmichael Hunt played six matches for the Wallabies in 2017 after playing 126 games for the Brisbane Broncos between 2004 and 2009. Photo / Photosport
Another red flag for Jones’ quip is the ongoing tale of Roger Tuivasa-Sheck who, two years after switching from the NRL to New Zealand Rugby, has struggled to find game time for the All Blacks after consistently being one of the best players in the NRL over nine seasons.
Whatever players end up being drafted into Jones’ Wallabies squad, he says they will be tasked with returning a style of game to the team that is distinctly Australian; one that’s already being used effectively on the world stage.
“If I watch Ireland play, Ireland look like the Australian side of the 80s and 90s where we played flat to the line, short passes, lot of movement on the ball,” Jones explained.
“And when you attack like that it puts a lot of pressure on the defence. And conversely on the other side you’ve got to be as equally united and you’ve got to work hard when you haven’t got the ball.
“It’s getting back that Australian style of play, concentrating on this period of time and those other systematic problems.”
