Wallabies chief slams ‘completely unfair’ Eddie Jones comments as inquest begins
Here’s your round-up of all the latest rugby news for Wednesday, November 1.
Australia hits out at ‘unfair’ Jones comments
Rugby Australia’s chief executive Phil Waugh believes Eddie Jones’ criticism of legendary trio Michael Hooper, Quade Cooper and Bernard Foley was ‘completely unfair’.
Before Jones departed the role as Wallabies head coach, he stated the aforementioned trio, all of whom were omitted from the squad for Australia’s disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign, were ‘past the stages’ of being good role models for the side. However, Waugh has leapt to their defence.
‘I think it’s a completely unfair comment,’ Wallabies chief Waugh said. ‘Across Michael Hooper, Quade Cooper, Bernard Foley, I think there’s 280-300 Test matches between those three. They’ve all put their body on the line over a long period of time and are role models to not just their peers but young boys and girls coming through the system.
‘So I think it is an absolutely unfair comment towards those players, given what they’ve contributed to rugby.’
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Waugh also insisted he ‘feels the pain’ of the Wallabies’ dismal 2023 World Cup campaign, but said they won’t rush into appointing a successor to Eddie Jones.
‘The performances of the Wallabies – and that’s our shopfront window – haven’t been good enough,’ he said after confirming Jones’ departure. ‘So for all supporters, we feel the pain. We feel that responsibility, we feel like we’ve let them down. I apologise and I’ve done that a number of times, just around the performance because it has been bitterly disappointing.
‘Now we need to move forward, with the same direction, the same vision and the same passion. We’ve got a lot of ground to make up, with building trust with our stakeholders, with the community.’
Outgoing All Blacks coach Ian Foster and former Wallabies boss Michael Cheika are just some of the early names mentioned as possible successors to Jones, but Waugh insists a decision will not be rushed.
‘Look, it’s all very raw. I think everyone’s a candidate,’ he added. ‘We’re open to getting the best coach for our system and our team in terms of high quality.
‘We want to make sure that we get the right panel together. Once we get that panel together, then run a process. Our next test is not till July next year. So we have time.’
Kolisi defends Barrett amid online trolling
South Africa captain Siya Kolisi has jumped to the defence of Jordie Barrett after the All Blacks star found himself the target of trolls on social media.
Barrett copped abuse for a video that appeared to show him subbing a handshake from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa when receiving his silver medal at the trophy presentation at the end of Saturday’s World Cup final. The 26-year-old was a standout performer for his side throughout the competition, but missed the chance to kick a penalty over to put his side in front late on.
South Africa returned to a heroes’ welcome on Tuesday, and Kolisi appeared to go out of his way to defend Barrett from the heat of criticism that has since gome his way. ‘After the game there was a video that went up on TikTok of Jordie Barrett and somebody thinks he didn’t shake the president’s hand and he’s been getting a lot of people being hard on him,’ he said.
‘Obviously it’s tough losing a World Cup final and getting that on social media is not good. I know him personally and he’s someone I know very well – he’s not that type of person. The video was taken probably after he shook the president’s hand and we just wanted to say we the South African team are fully behind him.
‘We respect New Zealand a lot, they respect us a lot. So please let’s just celebrate. There’s nothing worse than losing a game, then also being on social media getting all these messages. It’s really been tough for him and obviously the team and his family. As a South African team we are behind him.’
Parker hit with five-week ban
Cardiff Rugby prop Ciaran Parker has been hit with a five-week suspension following his red card in the defeat to Benetton.
Parker was dismissed in the 78th minute of the United Rugby Championship encounter last week after his shoulder connected with the chin of Simone Ferrari.
A disciplinary panel decided the offence warranted a six-week ban, although Parker’s guilty plea and subsequent apology was enough to reduce the ban to five weeks. Having picked up a red card back in January, also for head contact, no further mitigation was applied.
Parker began his ban in Saturday’s 16-9 win away to Dragons, and will now miss the clash with the Scarlets this weekend, as well as the fixtures with Bulls, Zebre and the Stormers.
Flanagan expects Dragons to train with other sides
Dragons boss Dai Flanagan admits he expects his side to train with other teams due to the ongoing cutbacks in the Welsh game.
All four regions in the Welsh game are operating with smaller squads for this campaign, with respective budgets reduced to £5.2m each. Flanagan subsequently says his side will have to ‘think innovatively’ about training methods going forward, including the possibility of training with other teams.
‘We have got a platform to train on Thursday where we can train against another 23, which is great because we have only got 28 fit players,’ he said.
‘In this day and age with smaller squads, smaller budgets and the intent to get more stabilised businesses, we have to think innovatively and that’s what we are trying to do.
‘So we need an opposition for Thursday and through a relationship we can get that. I know the Ospreys spoke about it publicly in the summer, about training against Cardiff a bit more. We have got an opportunity to go against 15 on Thursday which will prepare us best for Munster.’
Wallabies Chief Slams Eddie Jones’ Comments as Inquest Begins
