Pressure is building on Wallaby coach Eddie Jones leading into one of the most important weeks on the Australian rugby calendar with the traditional Bledisloe Cup Test against rivals New Zealand.
It all went sour for Jones on a disastrous two-Test tour to South Africa last month, highlighted by the sending home of reserve scrum-half Matt Henjak for disciplinary reasons.
Jones has taken stick from the Australian media for the two defeats to the Springboks and for revelations that several players were out in a Cape Town nightclub drinking into the early hours just two days before the first Johannesburg Test which they lost 33-20.
Jones, surrounded by an aggressive media scrum at Sydney airport last week, said the Wallabies still had time to raise the standard of their performances away from home before the 2007 World Cup in France.
But the recriminations have not died down and on Sunday Jones’s man-management skills were called into question as the Wallabies attempt to recover lost confidence and form when they tackle the All Blacks in Sydney on August 13.
Former Queensland Reds coach John Connolly urged Jones to get a grip with three issues he said were damaging the Australian team.
Writing in his column in the Sun Herald, Connolly said: ”Eddie Jones has to come to grips on three fronts: on-field performance, off-field discipline and player selection.
”The Wallabies coach’s man-management is being called into question as never before.
”For the first time, people are wondering whether he is the man to take us to the next World Cup … at the moment I still believe he is.”
Former All Blacks coach Laurie Mains also launched into Jones in the same newspaper.
Mains said the Wallabies were sliding off their peak and accused Jones of struggling to step up to the mark needed to coach a top international side.
”The Bledisloe Cup doesn’t look to be under too much threat this year,” said Mains, the last coach to take the All Blacks to a World Cup final.
”The Australian team is sliding off its peak rather than climbing. The main reason for that is that some of their star players — including George Gregan, Stephen Larkham and Stirling Mortlock — have been worked out by their opposition and are not playing at the level they were at the 2003 World Cup.
”Jones has a very unique style and it’s a style that puts a tremendous amount of pressure on his players and on all of those around him.
”And hence we have seen a number of his assistant coaches choose not to be part of the Wallabies’ set-up any more.
”Following the two losses to the Springboks and with the All Blacks in Sydney this week, Jones will be feeling incredible pressure.”
Wallabies skipper Gregan has come to the support of his beleaguered coach, saying: ”He has put Australian rugby in a great position and the last two games haven’t taken that away.
”We never get too far ahead of us, but we do have a plan going forward to the next World Cup.” – Sapa-AFP