In the era of Eddie Jones’ second coming as coach of Australia, there are two games of rugby for the price of one. There is the game played out on the field, and then there is another rehearsed afterwards in the post-match press conferences. It is an open question which is the more entertaining event.
The press conference at the Stade de France was one of those media assemblies where the two accounts coincided rather more than they have done previously. Jones was lucid, and for the most part had his feet on terra firma. After the Wallabies’ 41-17 loss, he said:
“The scoreboard is always important – don’t get me wrong – but we’ve got a greater aim with this game. In terms of what we want to do, particularly for our first game at the World Cup, we probably did a lot of good things.
“But we have to get a lot better at converting territory to points, and at the same time, when they get into our territory, stopping them from scoring points. It’s the most obvious thing, but we had 63% of the territory in the first half and [we] were behind 16-5 at half-time.
“We are not a bad team, but we are not a good team yet. We are going through the process of becoming a good team.”

So far, so good. There were plenty of positives for Australia. They seem to have settled on a plan where they keep more of the ball than Jones originally envisaged with his three-and-out policy. On Saturday evening, they forced Les Bleus to make 48 more tackles and built seven attacking phase-counts of four or more.
The starting front-row went well, with Angus Bell and Taniela Tupou winning the only two scrum penalties of the game. Both wings (Mark Nawaqanitawase and Suli Vunivalu) showed real quality in attack, and especially when the ball was in the air. It would have come as a relief for the Wallaby coaches to see the selection of Vunivalu justified, at very long last.
So far, so good. The Wallabies are probably on the right track as far as the game plan goes, and the players look enthused by the strategy. Now flip the coin over, and take a look at what is going wrong. Jones again:
“We’ve destabilised the team, we have taken away all the leadership that was there previously [and] put a new leadership team in place. We have tried to play a different way and the results haven’t been good. It hasn’t been good enough [and] I am not hiding away from that. [But] we have a longer-term plan at the World Cup, and that’s what we are here for.
“It depends on where your team is in [their] cycle. If you look at those top three teams, they are very established. They have been playing the same way for five years, personnel is very set, so the growth [remaining] in those may be smaller than others… We are still getting to know each other as a team.”
Was it necessary to sweep clean with such a savage new broom? The leadership group – Michael Hooper, Quade Cooper, Jed Holloway, Nic White among them – evaporated all at once, with only White hanging on by his fingernails, to a spot in the matchday 23. That is destabilisation writ large, at a stage of proceedings when you least want it, a few weeks before a World Cup begins.
Could Cooper have helped with the process of transformation? At the very least, he might have supported the mentoring of new fly-half Carter Gordon, and the young Rebels k?hai has already gone on the record as having received a stream of good advice from his senpai.
Quade Cooper may have blocked calls from Jones and Hamish McLennan, the Rugby Australia CEO, but he still supports his mates however he can. He probably would have helped on the field too.
“Obviously I have learned a lot from Quade and he has been massive for my growth in the last few months,” Gordon told the Sydney Morning Herald. “We are still super-close and we still talk a little bit. He sent me a really nice message when the squad came out and said he is here for me, and is going to continue to help me as much as he can. So that just shows the person he is, and how good a bloke he is.”
Cooper may have blocked calls from Jones and Hamish McLennan, the Rugby Australia CEO, but he still supports his mates however he can. He probably would have helped on the field too.
The problem with such a big wad of inexperience, dumped into a team all at once, is performance becomes very uneven. Nobody can really know what to expect, because younger players have been exposed to so few of the scenarios they are required to face at international level. While the likes of Gordon, Nawaqanitawase and Vunivalu have learned to do some things very well in their short careers, other aspects of their game have not kept up at the same rate.
That reality swiftly became evident against France. Both teams enjoyed a lot of success with short attacking kicks, and it was clearly a part of the Wallaby plan to lob kicks just over the defensive line for their two big wingers to chase. Both are 6ft 4ins tall and enjoyed a significant advantage in the air against smaller French opponents.
In the first instance it is Tate McDermott popping a chip over the top for Nawaqanitawase to get first touch. In the second it is replacement half-back Issak Fines-Leleiwasa offering Vunivalu the mismatch against Melvyn Jaminet, six inches shorter.
Over the piece, the French short kicking game was the better co-ordinated of the two on display, especially when the kicks came off the number 10. Compare one cross-kick by Gordon with another scoring example by French fly-half Matthieu Jalibert.
The hang time on Gordon’s kick gives the defence time to regroup, mark all the potential receivers and spoil any attempt at a clean reclaim by Vunivalu. The flat trajectory of Jalibert’s kick gives Vunivalu and Andrew Kellaway no chance to recover on the right of the Australian defence, which in turn means a try for left wing Gabin Villière in the corner.
It was a repeated theme.
With Vunivalu off the field on a yellow card, the Wallaby defence is caught very short indeed when Antoine Dupont chooses to kick-pass across to Villière, all alone on the left sideline.
Even with both of their wings on the field, the Wallabies struggled consistently with their defensive positioning on the edge.
Here is the most obvious example, with Nawaqanitawase pulled infield to ruck-side and nobody at home to prevent Damian Penaud from scoring an easy try off Dupont’s chip on the very next phase.
There were plenty of other scenarios where Nawaqanitawase took himself out of play voluntarily, and far too easily.
In the first instance, Nawaqanitawase sells himself too readily to the intercept and that creates space for France’s most dangerous running threat, Penaud, down the right edge. In the second, he reads ‘kick’ when France had already established they were quite happy to run when offered space out wide, even from deeper positions on the field. Only one long pass is needed for Penaud to work his magic down the touchline. “You never want to give a vampire a taste of blood,” as one television commentator put it after another epic long-range Penaud score in the Six Nations earlier this year.
There were also early issues with Gordon’s defence of the pocket battleship that is Jonathan Danty in midfield. Danty had already run over the top of Gordon once to set up the following opportunity in the sixth minute.
Nawaqanitawase and Gordon have gotten themselves in a tangle down the left, with the wing again caught infield and Gordon lacking the agility to stop Penaud down the right touchline. That led to a penalty for a high tackle by Tupou, and another shot from lineout for the French dreadnought at the same two defenders. You could almost hear him licking his lips at the prospect.
There have been some signs of improvement from Jones’ Wallabies over the past two games. The ball-control game-plan which suits the Australian players best is beginning to ingrain, and they are responding positively to it. Kick, and hope for the best after three phases has been consigned to the bin, and not a moment too soon.
Open-side Fraser McReight is beginning to enjoy Test-match life at a higher tempo, and even the Wallaby scrum was able to thrive against taller opponents in Paris. Some pieces of the puzzle are coming together.
At the same time, doubts – both lingering and deep-seated – remain.
Individual performances are hugely uneven, and team production is a fistful of big unknowns. Gordon offers much with ball in hand, but cannot kick goals. The two big wings attack well but are positional liabilities in defence. It goes on.
Recent developments have only sharpened the questions around the timing of Jones’ appointment. If the real aims for Rugby Australia are the British and Irish Lions tour in 2025, or the home World Cup in 2027, why not let Dave Rennie finish the job he had started, and allow Jones to begin his reconstruction work at the start of a new cycle in 2024? There are more questions than answers in Australian rugby right now, and Fiji, Wales and even Georgia will be asking some searching posers of their own in the weeks to come.
I said we will see how well we will perform against France.. from the looks of it Eddie J record will be 2 wins and 7 losses. The wins against Georgia and Portugal. Vunivalu likes to get yellow cards
Georgia will be a handful WL. They beat Wales last season and held the Scots scoreless in the first half recently. They have a kicker who can exploit any ill-discipline too...
Hi Nick did you see how Antoine D kick the wind out of the ball. Is there anything that he can't do on a field hehe.
Yep that mopment was almost worth a gif on its own, what with the returner showing the ref a flat ball!
Unfortunately it is a tall task to turn everything around so quickly for a RWC and not taking Quade but having White in the squad is confusing as hell. But the Wallabies do seem to be improving and changing.
Yes a good point re Quade and Whitey - why did one go and the other not if it was a cleanout of the old leadership group?? Might as well have taken Lonergan instead.
Thank you for the breakdown Nick. I agree, Rennie should have been allowed to finish his contract. I felt he was building something because with whatever healthy or unsanctioned players he had left, the Wallabies were competitive, except against Italy and Bledisloe 2. A few questions, what is the difference between the Rennie & EJ Wallabies and do you think Rennie's Wallabies would have had more wins?
One key is the coaching support group Renie had, which was much superior to Eddie's crew, the other is the coregroup aroun which Rennie had built. With those in place I think they would have won at least two of the five games this season.
Unfortunately it is a tall task to turn everything around so quickly for a RWC and not taking Quade but having White in the squad is confusing as hell. But the Wallabies do seem to be improving and changing. It will be interesting to see these teams playing fresh, not on tired legs.
Yes they have been better since Bell came back and they opted to keep ball rather than kick it all away Olly. Add Ikitau at 13, Marika at #11, Quade at 10, Kerevi alongisde him; AAA at #3 and Nick Frost back in the second row and they'd be fair dinkum right now.
You promised some reality pills, Nick. Delivered in spades. I hadn't understood how so much space was granted Penaud near halfway for his try but the picture captures the problem.
I know Coleman worked MK hard on his physicality to he has improved his contact work on D but positioning is another matter. What a player Kellaway is, switching to FB like to the manor born, covering for the guys in front. I assume MK will perform a similar role and lessent the pain
Potential of this team feels higher than previous teams but yeah still a lot of work ons. Ikitau and Kerevi being back would probably help with the defence and if Kerevi can find his best form that will totally change this Wallabies backline. This is the tournament of big ball carrying 12s. Oz, NZ, SA, France and Fiji all got powerful 12s.
Yep Danty was a big diff on Saturday - very powerful and strong over the ball on D too. And the truth is that as yet, Carter has done nothing that Quade could not also have done, and plenty more besides (like kicking his goals).
Nick, really looking forward to see how Dan McKellar goes with the Tigers. I have a lot of time for him. All round professional. Inspired me to follow the comp through our summer months. Go the Tigers 🐅
I think it will be a good fit Don. Tigers and Brumbies share a lot of philosophies in common and DMK may be the right coach to develope the club from where they were with Borthers....
It was necessary for Eddie to drop the old stagers. Especially Hooper. He was a terrible drag on the Wallabies. Typical self entitled Tah who thought close enough was good enough and a really terrible captain.
I can understand Quade being dropped, even tho I'm a huge fan because he is pretty fragile at his age. I doubt he would have lasted the whole tournament.
Realistically Eddie is aiming for the 2027 World Cup and giving these youngsters this experience now is invaluable. I can see a brilliant team brewing but it's going to take time. It will be worth it. Who knows, they might suddenly surprisingly click soon. Stranger things have happened.
John, I'm not sure whether you've read my recent article on the other website where I've agreed with Eddie that he needs to prioritise the next world cup cycle. You've got the best batch of youngsters for a long time, the 2024 All Blacks will be inexperienced and you have the home World Cup and Lions.
But I think that having Quade around would have helped not hindered Carter's development. Both technical stuff and taking away some of the pressure.
Why do you follow the party line so slavishly John?
Eddie made a big point about filling the last few spots in the squad with good characters, and Quade has proven he is that in spades since his comeback in 2021. He also has far more experience than Donaldson. Ideal. Ditto Samu for Kemeny.
You don't use a World Cup to give ppl experience, that is what the other three and 3/4 years are for. WC is where you are settled and ready for action. Rennie would have had a team of that nature, whatever the results.
CG left about 10 points on the park. Assuming he converted all, that still doesn't come close to 41 points! I think we'll struggle to get out of the Pool. Ryan Lonergan would have been an insightful inclusion in the squad and I'm still not convinced re. Vunivalu. I would have preferred Dylan Pietsch.
It will just as tough as pool B Steve. Fiji showed their quaity v England, and England, Wales and Aussie are all much of a muchness right now, so they can beat them too.
Vunivalu is good in the air, spectacularly so, but his D is as poor as Marky Mark's if you rewatch the first RC round v South Africa.
If he scores those points, maybe scoreboard pressures makes the French make mistakes and the Wallabies play with more confidence. 41 becomes 27 and 17 becomes 32.
Great point about the hang time of kicks to wings. I'd never considered that, but now you mentioned it, it makes perfect sense. I guess the flatter, faster cross field skill is a much harder skill to execute
The quicker you get the ball there, the less chance for these modern D's to recover Todd. Jalibert is even willing to let the ball bounce to get the flatter trajectory he wants.
Many years ago I worked for a high quality CEO who would genuinely have 1-2 brilliant ideas every month or so. Problem was he would also have 20 absolute shyte ones and he couldn't tell the difference, but he had a really strong management team who would push back on the dross and the business thrived.
Who in Eddies coaching team or player group is pushing back on the poorer ideas?
That's exactly what some of the staffers said about Clive Woodward too H! You needed someone smart to sieve the good ideas from the bad... But SCW had a lot of strong personalities and experienced people around him.
Eddie doesn't. All of them are probably more or less grateful to have a job at this level of the game and just go along with the flow... I imagine he got plenty of push-back from Mitch, Wisemantel and Borthwick with England.
Great comment. 👍
Spot on. I’ve known CEOs that if you pushed back on the dross you’d be fired or spend your time in limbo. And they never had a brilliant idea.
Didn’t he get Hansen to ‘take a look’ so to speak. And I understand, there is an American coach educator on staff who reviews coaching methods and works with the coaches to improve their methods.
Gordon looked to me like he ran out of ideas part way through the match and that his confidence dipped after missing all those kicks. He isn’t the kicker for the rebels, I don’t think, so it’s strange we don’t have a proper kicker. It’s also a good reason to have someone like Cooper to bring on, rather than wear Gordon down in energy and confidence.
Also missed Len Ikitau greatly in attack and defence, and Nic White’s passing.
It's not unnatural for that to happen at all N for such an inexperienced player. A few goal-kicks or tackles missed can do that to your confidence, but as you say without a Ryan Lonergan or a Quade or a Hodge there is no back-up.
Len Ikitau would have done a lot to sew this Aussie D together, he's a leader on D. And he has that sweet left foot too.
As someone else noted. Pity he didn’t have Pete Samu coming off his shoulder.
I see that Topou suggested the Wallabies had underplayed their hand, so to speak. If there is to be a different Wallabies game plan, what do you think it might be? Obviously there will be changes to the line out (as they won’t simply throw to Hooper as they did on Sunday) and probably more offloading in the tackle. But do you foresee any significant changes or is this just ‘Eddie speak’?
It could just be smoke blown up the backside Dan, but then the kicking plan did look very specific. I doubt they'd do the same v Liam Williams and Wales for example. That was prob what Nella was referring to. Aussie will have its hands full with Fiji, who were very powerful and direct at Twickers.