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'I had that Barbarians commitment written into my new contract'

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)

Eddie Jones has confirmed he will still definitely coach the Barbarians in May at Twickenham – even though he was unveiled as the new Wallabies boss on Monday. The ex-England coach agreed to coach the invitational side last month not long after he had been dismissed by the RFU and he won’t back out of the challenge of taking on Steve Hansen’s World XV despite being tasked with ensuring that Australia are ready to be at their best for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

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It was Monday when Rugby Australia announced their shock decision to replace Dave Rennie with Jones just 41 days after the long-serving England coach was sacked by the RFU on December 6.

However, rather than use this new deal with the Wallabies as an excuse to reverse from his commitment with the Barbarians, Jones has re-iterated how much he is looking forward to coaching the Killik Cup team and locking horns with Hansen, the ex-All Blacks boss.

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“I can’t wait to coach the Barbarians again this year. I had that commitment written into my new contract. It’ll be a great challenge,” he said before discussing the reasons why he agreed to return to the Wallabies job he was sacked from in 2005.

“In coaching, there isn’t a pathway. You just try and do as good a job as you can, and you keep doing the job until someone tells you that you can’t do it anymore. People either offer you a job, or you go looking for a job, and I was lucky enough to be offered this one – but it does potentially close a circle on a coaching career.

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“It’s been 18 years since I have coached Australia and in that time I have coached South Africa, Japan and England. I’ve won a World Cup final, lost a World Cup final, and now I get a chance to coach my own country so it’s quite humbling. I probably thought that England was going to be my last full-time coaching role, but I’m enjoying it so much still. As long as I’m healthy, fit, energetic and committed, then there is no reason why you should stop, is there? I love the game.”

Barbarians boss Jones added: “To be honest, I never really thought about getting the opportunity to coach Australia again. The first time in 2005, that was a difficult time. You’re coaching your country and it gets taken away from you, but you move on and just get on with it, then re-focus on what you are doing.

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“This team [Australia] is not too far away. Dave Rennie has done a great job under difficult circumstances, as they were probably affected more by covid than most countries. We’ll need to find a point of difference. That might be going back to that more aggressive, attacking Australian style of rugby, with a more aggressive defence. Really playing like a traditional Australian side did.

“We want to get super fit. There are parts of the modern game where you have to play the way it is now, but there are other parts where you can go back to tradition. Australia were traditionally flat at the line, numbers at the line, asking questions of the opposition, and making good decisions. That’s what we want to do.”

  • General admission tickets for Barbarian FC vs World XV are on sale now from www.ticketmaster.co.uk/barbarians at the early-bird price of just £25 for adults and £15 for U16s.
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J
Jon 6 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

34 Go to comments
A
Adrian 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

34 Go to comments
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