A dig at McCaw? Eddie Jones' sneaky shot at All Blacks legend
He made accusations of spying, said the pressure was on the All Blacks and had a crack at the Kiwi media but Eddie Jones’ biggest dig at yesterday’s press conference may have been at Richie McCaw.
The England coach held court yesterday ahead of Saturday’s Rugby World Cup semifinal in Yokohama. The All Blacks and England will clash for the first time at a World Cup since 1999 as Steve Hansen’s men look to make a third straight trip to the final. England last won a semifinal in 2007 before losing to South Africa in the final.
“It’s potentially the last game for their greatest ever coach [Steve Hansen], for their greatest ever captain [Kieran Read],” Jones said yesterday in an attempt to talk up the All Blacks while also trying to add pressure on them.
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While forgetting the fact there’s a bronze final to be played for Saturday’s loser, Jones suggesting Read over McCaw as the All Blacks greatest captain is a pretty big flex.
Read has done a brilliant job replacing McCaw, but his former teammate is the only captain to lift the William Webb Ellis Cup twice. McCaw captained the All Blacks in 110 tests, 97 of which were victories, while Read is expected to lead the side out for the 51st time on Saturday.
In an entertaining and often humorous exchange with journalists, both English and Kiwi, Jones also accused the New Zealand media of being “fans with keyboards”, and asked them to answer some hard questions of the All Blacks and his rival Hansen.
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After saying that the England camp were aware their session was being filmed by someone in an apartment overlooking his side’s training session, Jones linked the All Blacks with it and then backtracked slightly by saying there was no value in doing so. He also admitted to doing it himself in 2001.
The mind games continued. Jones said the All Blacks were “consistently good” because they did the basics well. And that Hansen had run “good campaigns” before.
“We don’t have any pressure, mate… no one thinks we can win. There’s 120 million Japanese people out there whose second team are the All Blacks. There’s no pressure on us. We just have to have a great week, relax and enjoy it.
“They’re looking for their third World Cup so that brings pressure.”
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Jones claimed he knew England would play the All Blacks in the semifinal here. Wales play South Africa in the other.
“We trialled some things in November against them and now we’ve got a few things we want to do a little better in this game. And now we’ve got the opportunity to do it.
“I don’t think they’re vulnerable but the pressure is real. The busiest guy for them will be Gilbert Enoka, the mental skills coach. They’ve got to think about winning this three times. It’s potentially the last game for their greatest ever coach [Steve Hansen], and for their greatest ever captain [Kieran Read]. They will be talking about it the whole week. It’s always much harder to defend the World Cup and they’ll be thinking about that.
He added: “Someone has to ask questions, mate because the New Zealand media doesn’t. You guys are just fans with keyboards, so someone’s got to ask them some questions about what’s going on.”
Asked what Hansen would make of it all, Jones replied: “He’ll laugh, I’m sure he will.”
This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and was republished with permission.
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Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments