Following Australia’s worst Rugby World Cup defeat that pushed it to the verge of their earliest Rugby World Cup exit, coach Eddie Jones insisted he’s still the man to turn the Wallabies around.
The Wallabies had to stop unbeaten Wales today in Lyon to keep alive their perfect record of making the quarters at every tournament. But they were thrashed 40-6.
Wales’ biggest win over Australia propelled them to the quarter-finals with a game to spare in Pool C, while Australia’s fate was no longer in its hands.
It could beat Portugal next weekend to even their pool record at 2-2, but could be overtaken by Fiji if the latter beats Georgia and Portugal.
Jones was a forlorn figure after his Wallabies were sunk by three tries and the boot of Gareth Anscombe.
Rugby Australia ruthlessly sacked Dave Rennie in January due to a 38 percent win record, and immediately brought aboard Jones, 20 years after he led the Wallabies to the 2003 Rugby World Cup final. RA gave Jones a contract to the 2027 Rugby World Cup but hoped for one of his quick fixes to have the team firing in France.
But the Wallabies have lost seven of his eight tests. They lost to Fiji for the first time in 69 years last Monday, and suffered their heaviest loss to Wales.
“I remain committed to the Australia project,” Jones said. “I still believe I am the person to turn things around.
“At the moment I am not giving much help, am I? But that doesn’t mean my commitment to helping has changed.
“I am a proud Australian, I hate to see Australian rugby do as poorly as we have been doing, particularly under my reign. It’s not only the Wallabies we have got to improve, we’ve got to treat the whole system of Australian rugby. It’s not an excuse but we’ve got to have a really good look at ourselves and see what we’ve got to do to improve.”
