Eddie Jones opens up on ‘terrible phone calls’ with dropped Wallabies
When the Wallabies announced their 33-man squad for the upcoming Rugby World Cup on Thursday evening, it felt like the dawn of a new era in Australia.
Coach Eddie Jones left out a couple of legendary players from the 33-man squad, including former Australian captain Michael Hooper and playmaker Quade Cooper.
They weren’t the only big-name players to miss out, either.
Injured centre Len Ikitau has failed to recover from a devastating injury that he picked up during the match against Argentina in Sydney.
Loose forwards Jed Holloway and Pete Samu are also stunning omissions from the squad. Holloway started two Tests under Jones, including the Bledisloe Cup clash with the All Blacks at the MCG.
There are plenty of parallels that can be drawn between squad selections and Test matches themselves. There are those who celebrate success as the verdict or result is rendered into history, while others fall short of glory.
About 30 minutes after the squad was revealed, coach Eddie Jones spoke with reporters – and answered a series of questions for almost 20 minutes.
Amongst all the chaos and the frenzy of questions, Jones reflected on the “terrible phone calls” that he had to make to the likes of Michael Hooper and Quade Cooper.
“They’re terrible phone calls, mate,” Jones told reporters. “You never like to tell a player he’s not in the squad.
“You just sent me back about four weeks ago, I went up and watched a game in Coffs Harbour and caught up with my old schoolboy coach Geoff Mould.
“We went over and sat by the scrum machine. He’s close to 90 now and he said, ‘I want you to tell me the truth now.’ He said, ‘Did you blame me for being left out of the Australian Schoolboys?’
“He’s still feeling that hurt of leaving me out in 1977.
“These conversations, don’t get me wrong they’re more painful for the player, but for a coach, they’re not the discussions you like to have.”
Hours before the squad was revealed, reports and rumours started to spread about the makeup of the Wallabies’ Rugby World Cup squad.
It was widely reported that Hooper was set to miss out, which of course proved true – and the same could be said for Cooper. But there was only a whisper about another genuinely world-class talent.
Sydney Morning Herald reporter Tom Decent Tweeted about the absence of centre Len Ikitau from the squad. At the start of The Rugby Championship, this would’ve been deemed nigh on impossible.
But a cruel injury blow has ruled the midfielder out of contention – for now, at least. Coach Jones suggested that Ikitau could still feature in the World Cup.
“He was close mate,” Jones added. “We had to draw a line as to who we take that is borderline fitness.
“It just comes down to a judgement of what we think we can carry and what we can’t carry.
“We’ve decided that we won’t take Lenny, he hasn’t had a lot of rugby, obviously, for the last six or seven weeks.
“But there’s no reason once he gets fit he couldn’t feature in the World Cup. We just saw in The Rugby Championship, I think from the original squad we had we lost at least seven of those players.
“The World Cup, which is obviously more games, there’s reason to think the players that are out of the squad, that are not currently at their best, may feature later in the tournament.”
The Wallabies are just 80 minutes of rugby away from their World Cup opener against Georgia.
Australia are 0-4 under coach Jones, and take on World Cup hosts and favourites France in Paris at the end of the month. It doesn’t get much tougher than that.
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
31 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
4 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
31 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
31 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.
31 Go to comments