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Eddie Jones’ warning for All Blacks before ‘real battle’ with France
By Finn Morton
Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has warned the All Blacks that “they’ve got two weeks” to get ready for a red-hot France side who recorded an emphatic win over Australia on Sunday evening.
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The All Blacks were unbeaten going into Friday’s titanic battle with fierce rivals South Africa at Twickenham. Playing in front of more than 80,000, it was a fairly one-sided contest from minute one.
South Africa dominated the possession and territory battle for the opening quarter of that Test, but failed to turn their attacking pressure into points – for a while, at least.
Tries to captain Siya Kolisi and wing Kurt-Lee Arendse – as well as a second yellow card to All Black Scott Barrett, which saw the lock sent off – saw the Boks take a hard-earned lead into the break.
But their best was yet to come. Playing with a one-man advantage, the Boks put on a show, and sent a message to the rugby world ahead of the upcoming tournament in France.
They ended up winning that Test 35-7, which was a record defeat for the All Blacks. Following their unbeaten run in The Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup, it’s a concerning fall from grace.
Two days later, the All Blacks’ first opponent at the Rugby World Cup took the field against Eddie Jones’ Wallabies. Led by captain Antoine Dupont, Les Bleus were met with a deafening cheer as they ran out onto Stade de France.
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Australia showed plenty of potential, once again, but were no match for France on the scoreboard. France scored four tries to three as they ran away with a 41-17 win.
As Wallabies coach Eddie Jones explained, it sets up “a real battle” at the same venue in next month’s Rugby World Cup opener.
“I’m sure (coach Fabian Galthie) knows how to do that, he doesn’t need advice from me,” Jones said when asked about what France needs to do to beat the All Blacks.
“France look ready to play, New Zealand on Friday night didn’t look ready to play. They’ve just travelled over, probably haven’t had much training. Their timing, rhythm of the game was off. They’ve got two weeks to get ready now.
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“The game at the moment, as we saw today, the ability to get in the opposition’s 22 and then convert that into points is massively important. It’s become almost the game.
“You’ve got now, almost a game in the 22 and a game outside of the 22, and that game in the 22, you’ve got to get points for it.
‘New Zealand were good at that in The Rugby Championship, France are good at doing that. It’s going to be a real battle, mate, a real battle.
“What a great way to start the tournament. I’m sure if they could build another stadium on top of this they would. They’d get 160,000 in there.”
The result of NZ vs France is unimportant. By quarterfinal time, NZ will be ready to perform, barring injuries.
Man states obvious. Applauded as prophet...
France in a 30years to nil cups history will repeat
That's why Aust USLESS he trains with bottom lip , France weren't great Aust was a bloody shambles let them in at with soft tries , well at least he didn't blame Hanson.
Excuses Excuses
well eddie you had from the start of the season to get ready and look what happened. south africa reminded us about the rugby world cup when we lost to them
All France needs to do is push their line out jumpers into the All Black maul defence three times and they will get penalties and the All blacks will get carded and game over.
I'm sure our forum expert Conrad will have a view on this soon, please bring the Conrad wisdom soon........
Classic Jones, deflecting from another Aussie loss to "warning" the Allblacks they have two weeks to get ready. Thanks mate.
I'm no fan of Eddie Jones, but to say he doesn't have credentials shows a lack of knowledge of rugby history. He took two different teams to the World Cup final: Australia 2003, England 2019 - he didn't win but not many coaches have. He was also an advisor to SA winners in 2007. He got immediate results when he took over England but more than 4 years as head coach was too long, coached Japan to beat the Springboks in 2015
I’m not an EJ cheerleader but I watched the press conference that they pulled these comments from and Eddie only commented on NZ cause the journos asked him what he thought about how the ABs went against France. It was actually more charitable than it sounds here - he said that NZ shouldn’t be written off cause they’re just in a different part of prep. He actually talked a lot about his own team and didn’t mention too many others until asked. They’ve just pulled these comments out in isolation as clickbait to make it look like he’s been off flapping his gums again. I didn’t think it was anything to get rarked up about in the context of the MC and usually I’m the first person to get enraged 😆