“Eddie has been a great coach. He still is a great coach. It would be really easy to turn around and talk about the coaches and the players but the inconvenient facts are Australian Rugby need an overhaul as has done for some time,” Hansen said.
“They haven’t won the Bledisloe Cup for 20 years, they’ve gone through a cycle of sacking coaches - Robbie Deans, Dave Rennie, Ewen McKenzie. It doesn’t work. What they’ve got to do is peel the onion back and have a look at what’s not going right. Are they developing coaches properly? I don’t think so. Are they developing their players properly? I don’t think so. Is Super Rugby right for Australia having five teams? I don’t think so.”
“You live in a world where rugby is kingpin...in New Zealand,” when asked if Jones should keep his job.
“In Australia it’s possibly fourth behind AFL, NRL and the soccer competition. You’ve got to have somebody to promote the game and get people excited about it. He’s got to try and create some sort of belief in his group, that’s all he’s done. Would I have done that? Maybe not but I’m not Eddie. I’m not working in that environment. If the worst thing he’s done is said they’ll win the World Cup and they haven’t, then he’ll join a lot of other coaches.”,
“There’s not a more committed coach in World Rugby,” Hansen added.
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Jones says he’s still Australia’s long-term saviour amid Rugby World Cup woes
Following Australia’s worst Rugby World Cup defeat that pushed it to the verge of its earliest Rugby World Cup exit, coach Eddie Jones insisted he’s still the man to turn the Wallabies around.
The Wallabies had to stop unbeaten Wales on Sunday in Lyon to keep alive their perfect record of making the quarters at every tournament. But they were thrashed 40-6.
Wales’ biggest win over Australia propelled it to the quarterfinals with a game to spare in Pool C, while Australia’s fate was no longer in its hands.
It could beat Portugal next weekend to even its pool record at 2-2, but could be overtaken by Fiji if the latter beats Georgia and Portugal.
Jones was a forlorn figure after his Wallabies were sunk by three tries and the boot of Gareth Anscombe.
Rugby Australia ruthlessly sacked Dave Rennie in January due to a 38% win record, and immediately brought aboard Jones, 20 years after he led the Wallabies to the 2003 Rugby World Cup final. RA gave Jones a contract to the 2027 Rugby World Cup but hoped for one of his quick fixes to have the team firing in France.
But the Wallabies have lost seven of his eight tests. They lost to Fiji for the first time in 69 years last weekend, and suffered their heaviest loss to Wales.
“I remain committed to the Australia project,” Jones said. “I still believe I am the person to turn things around.
“At the moment I am not giving much help, am I? But that doesn’t mean my commitment to helping has changed.
“I am a proud Australian, I hate to see Australian rugby do as poorly as we have been doing, particularly under my reign. It’s not only the Wallabies we have got to improve, we’ve got to treat the whole system of Australian rugby. It’s not an excuse but we’ve got to have a really good look at ourselves and see what we’ve got to do to improve.”
During the past week, Jones defended his decision to bring a young, largely inexperienced squad, saying he was building to 2027 while also believing they could still win this Rugby World Cup. He added he didn’t want to wait until after this tournament to begin the rebuild.
“I have got the ability to turn things around,” he said. “I was hoping we would be able to do it by now but we haven’t been able to. I haven’t done a good enough job and I am disappointed about that.”
On the eve of the Wales match, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Jones interviewed last month for his old Japan job. Asked about it after the Wales game, he said, “I don’t know what you are talking about mate. I take umbrage to people questioning my commitment to the Australia job.”
Flyhalf Carter Gordon, dropped to the bench for Wales, said the players believed in Jones.
“As far as the players know, Eddie is committed to Rugby Australia,” Gordon said. “Look, we know he is committed to us and we are committed to him.”
The Wallabies paid for their inability to be clinical against Wales in a strong first half that finished with them trailing 16-6, and they were overrun in the second half.
“I apologize to all the Australian supporters,” Jones said.
“Our performance was not up to the standard that was required. We are disappointed, we have a young team in there very disappointed. They tried their hearts out but unfortunately at the moment we don’t have consistency in our play to put pressure on teams like Wales. We do some good things and then fall away. It’s very disappointing.”
- AP
