Former Australian rugby coach Eddie Jones has blamed a decades-old feud with his predecessor Alan Jones for his sacking this week.
Eddie Jones said that Alan Jones, the Wallabies coach from 1984 to 1987, was behind an orchestrated campaign to remove him.
”Ever since I took on the job he has been trying to get me out,” Jones told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Jones said his namesake, no relation, had nursed a grievance for 22 years over remarks he made while he was playing for Sydney club side Randwick against Alan Jones’ Manly.
”Alan and I had a disagreement when I was a player and he was a coach,” he said.
Asked whether he had verbally abused Alan Jones’ favourite players during his playing day, he replied: ”That might have been the case, but that’s a long time ago.”
Alan Jones has gone on to become Australia’s top-rating talkback radio host, providing a podium from which he has repeatedly launched withering attacks calling for Jones’ head.
”What on earth does this man do for the money he is paid?” he said on his radio programme this week.
”We have outstanding players. We are smack bang in the middle of a leadership that can’t adjust to the modern demands, a leadership that can’t co-ordinate the team to meet the challenge offered on the other side.”
Eddie Jones was sacked on Friday after coming under intense pressure when the Wallabies lost eight of their last nine internationals, including a sequence of seven successive defeats — Australia’s worst run in 36 years.
The problems were highlighted during last month’s European tour when the Australian pack was humiliated by England, and the only Test win came in an unconvincing display against Ireland.
New South Wales coach Ewen McKenzie is regarded as the frontrunner to become the new Wallabies coach and reiterated his interest in the position after Jones’ sacking, although he said he would stay with the Waratahs for the 2006 Super 14 season.
”I’ve always said that if the job becomes available down the track, then I would apply for it.” McKenzie said.
”I’m fully committed to coaching the Waratahs next year but see no reason why I couldn’t make the transition to the national job immediately afterwards, if I was the successful candidate.” – Sapa-AFP