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New doc reveals scathing Eddie Jones remarks on Wallabies rugby
By Ian Cameron
Comments made by former Australia head coach Eddie Jones in which he lambasts the national team for a fundamental lack of toughness have been aired in the new documentary – The Wallabies.
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This revelation comes following Australia’s tumultuous journey through the Rugby World Cup, which has been detailed in a three-part series by Stan Sport.
The documentary offers an at times intimate glimpse into the Wallabies’ preparations and challenges leading up to the global tournament.
The crescendo arrives in the final episode when Jones – now at the helm of Japan’s national team – delivers a blunt assessment of the Wallabies mentality to one of his ex-captains, prop James Slipper.
“That’s the problem mate, we’ve got no hardness about us,” Jones tells Slipper. “Game hardness is different to any sort of hardness, when you just stick in the f***ing game and do it. There’s none of that in Australian rugby now, and that’s where the big gap is, mate.
“If you look at those Welsh players, mate, they play 30 games a year, they’re hardened tough players, so they can just stick at it, and they know they’re going to do it. And we’ve lost that in Australian rugby.
“We’re not not tough, but we’re not trained to be tough now, and we’re not used to playing tough; like it’s an exception to play tough now rather than the norm. It stands out like dog’s balls, mate… it’s set up for failure, mate.”
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His comments – alongside insights from assistant coach Pierre-Henry Broncan about the disparity in match experience between Australian players and their northern hemisphere counterparts – paint a grim picture of the respect Jones had for a team that would ultimately exit the World Cup in ignominy during the pool stages.
He’s a dinosaur. Those poor players. I bet that doco is an uncomfortable watch. I’m guessing he just demeaned the players, undermined any confidence they had and then wondered why they didn’t play well. Hopefully it’s a 180 on that behaviour under their new coach.
Seems like the only teams that are “tough” in Eddy’s eyes are the ones he can bully with no pushback, he said the same stuff about English players after they got fed up with his shit.