Eddie Jones faced suggestions he has outlived his usefulness as Wallaby coach on Tuesday as he arrived home from Australia’s dismal tour of South Africa.
Jones put a brave face on the Wallabies’ twin losses to the Springboks, saying the team still have time to raise their overseas performance before the 2007 World Cup in France.
But the aggressive media scrum awaiting him at Sydney airport was just a hint of the trouble facing the veteran coach after the South African tour — during which reserve halfback Matt Henjak was sent home and three starting Wallabies were disciplined for off-the-field antics.
Henjak, wingers Lote Tuqiri and Wendell Sailor and prop Matt Dunning ran into grief during an all-night drinking session at a Cape Town bar just two days before the team’s 22-16 defeat in the opening Tri-Nations test in Pretoria.
The Wallabies had already gone down to a convincing 33-20 loss in the Mandela Challenge Plate in Johannesburg a week earlier.
The losses left Jones’s away record at just two wins and 13 defeats against the top four Test opponents since he took over the Wallaby top job from Rod Macqueen in 2001.
Australian commentators were scathing not just about the on-the-pitch failures but about the state of team professionalism, when four national players apparently have no problem partying all night before a Test match.
”There is mounting evidence over the past two years that Jones has lost control of his team,” wrote Sydney Morning Herald rugby expert Spiro Zavos.
”Test after Test, the Wallabies, as they did in South Africa in the past two weeks, have failed to execute the game plan,” Zavos said.
”Last Saturday night, Jones talked again about his team’s inability to apply ‘closure’ when in a position to make the decisive score.
”Coaches tend to have a life span with national rugby teams of about four years. Jones took over as Wallabies coach in late 2001. His team is getting worse rather than better,” Zavos said.
At Sydney airport, Jones had to fend off questions about whether he is still the right man to lead the Wallabies.
”It’s not a decision I make. All I do is the job as well as I can and that’s what I’m doing,” he said.
”The second Test [in South Africa], we were in a very, very good position to win and we weren’t good enough to win it.
”So, we just have to keep on working hard and keep on trying to improve the way we play at home and away.”
Jones, whose contract with the Wallabies runs until after the World Cup, brushed aside suggestions his poor overseas record bodes ill for the showcase tournament in France.
”The World Cup is a bit different because there’s only one home side. Everyone’s playing away from home,” he said. — Sapa-AFP