Australia coach Eddie Jones takes swipe at New Zealand as Wallabies and All Blacks prepare to face off
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Published 27/07/2023 at 16:07 GMT+1
Australia coach Eddie Jones was bullish ahead of his side's clash with New Zealand, saying a win for the Wallabies would cause their rivals to start "sinking". Jones' struggling team will face the All Blacks on Saturday having lost two consecutive games. With the World Cup just over a month away, the veteran coach is eyeing a morale-boosting win in Melbourne.
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Australia coach Eddie Jones has come out swinging ahead of his side’s meeting with New Zealand on Saturday, aiming several digs at the Wallabies’ great rivals.
Jones was appointed Australia coach in January but has seen his side lose the opening two matches of his tenure.
The Wallabies suffered a heavy 43-12 defeat to South Africa in the opening game of The Rugby Championship earlier this month, before narrowly losing out 34-31 to Argentina.
Two losses is certainly not how the 63-year-old would have envisioned his side’s preparations for this autumn’s World Cup to begin.
Australia have three more matches to play before kicking off their World Cup campaign in France against Georgia on September 9, starting with a clash with arch-rivals New Zealand.
With the All Blacks coming in on a nine-game unbeaten streak, it looks a big ask for Australia to earn their first win under Jones.
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GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 25: Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones poses with co-captains James Slipper and Michael Hooper during the Australian Wallabies Rugby Championship squad announcement at Sanctuary Cove on June 25, 2023 in Gold Coast, Australia. (P
Image credit: Getty Images
However, despite his team’s form, Jones used his pre-match media conference to pile pressure on Australia’s neighbours.
“There’s nothing better than winning against New Zealand because you feel the country sinking, right?” Jones told reporters.
“It’s not just rugby sinks; the country sinks. The whole economy goes down. The prime minister is there with his fingers crossed, hoping the All Blacks win because he knows the economy is going to drop if they lose. So we can have that effect.”
On the flip side, Jones hopes that a good result in front of 85,000 fans at Melbourne Cricket Ground can have a positive impact in his own country.
“And at the same time, Australian kids will want to play rugby again. Because, at the moment, too many of them want to play AFL,” he said.
“We want kids to play rugby because it’s the greatest game of all. We have a bit of a job here to do. Maybe put the New Zealand prime minister on call that the economy is going to suffer, and at the same time, raise our stakes here.”
Keen to ramp up the pressure on his opponents, Jones then took aim at New Zealand’s media.
“We’re an Australian team; we’re developing as a team. Can we put the Kiwis under pressure on Saturday? Yes,” Jones said.
“And I think some people are going to get a surprise. I can see the way you’re sitting here and thinking, ‘What’s this bloke talking about? How can this Australian team do it?’ The All Blacks have been fantastic for the first two games… but you’re still fans with keyboards, right? Nothing’s changed.”
After suffering two defeats, Jones admitted that his side need to hit "rock bottom" and start again.
"I think in reality we need to hit rock bottom and then bounce up,” Jones told Sky Sports News. “I was hoping that we could do an immediate rescue job. That's not going to happen. We almost need to scrape at the bottom and start again to a large degree."
Australia have been drawn in the same World Cup pool as Wales, Fiji, Georgia and Portugal, with two teams to advance to the quarter-final stage.
The Wallabies last reached the Rugby Union World Cup final in 2015 when they lost to New Zealand, and have not won the competition since beating France in 1999.
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