“Eddie Jones must go”, the Australian media takes red shots at the Wallabies coach

After an already historic first defeat against Fiji on Sunday September 17, “Wales have stuck the knife in the wound of the Wallabies’ hopes in this World Cup”, sums up mercilessly The Roarthe day after the humiliating disappointment of Australia (40 to 6, in Lyon, September 24), now almost eliminated from the competition.

Disgusted by the performance of the Wallabies, third in their group behind Wales and Fiji, the Australian sports site is pulling no punches: “While the red tide [des supporteurs gallois] in the stands became a sea of ​​blood on the field, blood will undoubtedly still be shed after the Wallabies’ worst defeat in a World Cup match. »

After this somewhat exaggerated metaphor, The Roar continues with another which makes you smile more: “Australian rugby was sold like a Gucci handbag, but in the end it was a counterfeit made in a sweatshop, with seven defeats in the eight test matches played since Eddie Jones’ return in January 2022. »

For the site, as for all of the Australian media, there is no doubt: the culprit of this unprecedented fiasco – the Wallabies have never been eliminated in the group stage of the World Cup – is the Australian coach, who , during his first stint on the selection bench, twenty years ago, took his country to a final lost against England.

The end of a predicted disaster

“ [Eddie] Jones must go,” title The Sydney Morning Herald. “The Wallabies are paying a high price for their decision to re-hire Eddie Jones,” assène The Australian. “Most of the criticism leveled at the veteran coach is justified,” abounds the ABC channel.

“It took the most sickening defeat in Wallabies history for me to realize I was wrong about Eddie,” admits another chronicler of the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter FitzSimons. Unlike him, most of the Australian media see this thunderous defeat as the end of a predicted disaster.

The main criticisms accuse him of having carried out too brutal a rejuvenation of the squad and of having shelved popular experienced players, such as fly-half Quade Cooper. And more generally to have deceived one’s world, blinded by one’s own ego, considers The Roar, which reproduces a quote from the coach, interviewed a few months ago, on the state of the Australian XV: “If that sounds like a mess, I can assure you it’s not. »

The Australian media is also mad at Jones because, according to information published by the Sydney Morning Herald on the morning of the match against Wales, he would have gone through the video conferencing site Zoom “an interview for the vacant Japan coach position in the weeks leading up to the World Cup”.

Which allows the Daily Telegraph British to have fun throwing : “If there is any chance of Jones taking this job in Japan, the Australian Rugby Union should pay him a one-way ticket themselves. »

From now on, continues the daily life, “It is time for Australia to move forward after this miserable saga.” And to look ahead to a considerable challenge: rebuilding everything between now and the start of the 2027 World Cup, which will be hosted by… Australia.

Before that, we will have to save honor during the last group match, on 1^er October against Portugal, the team presented as the weakest in Group C, hoping for a miraculous defeat for Fiji against Georgia or the same Portugal.

A hypothesis that no one believes in an Australia disillusioned by this match against the Welsh, that The Roar qualifies, in a last chosen image, and in French in the text, of “shit show”.