Eddie Jones still believes in the Wallabies’ World Cup dream despite horror start

Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones insists that his side are on “the right track” despite being winless from his first two games back with the team.

Since Jones made his return to the helm of the Wallabies the Australians have failed to win after a dramatic 34-31 loss to Argentina on Saturday followed an even bigger 43-12 defeat to the Springboks the week before.

Tough start

It is certainly not the sparkling return the country had in mind when the veteran coach was announced at the beginning of the year. However, despite the poor start Jones insists the team is going through changes and moving in the right direction – towards their goal of winning the World Cup.

“At the moment, it seems like we’re miles away from where we need to be. But all this is going to make us harder and more hungry to get it right,” Jones said.

“We’re a team that needs to change. We know that. And that’s the reason I’m here in the job.”

Whilst the loss was heartbreaking for the Wallabies, one positive was the sensational performance of strike wing Mark Nawaqanitawase who looked to have saved the game with a late interception. However, Argentina managed to steal the game with a late try of their own.

When asked about the performance of the star, Jones only had praise for Nawaqanitawase’s efforts.

“Fantastic,” Jones said.

“Every time he got the ball, he lit the stadium up. Kids are jumping off the edge of the seat. He’s that sort of player. Fantastic.”

Still believing

The dream for Jones and the Wallabies is what he describes as a “smash and grab” World Cup win – something he still believes in. The tactician admits it will take some big changes but he feels the team is moving forward.

“There’s probably no-one more despondent than me. I probably ruined three radios in the coach’s box,” he said.

“It was always going to be difficult if you’re coming off a base where you’ve been consistently unsuccessful for a period of time, which the results show that.

“We’re trying to change the team and also trying to change the way we play. So we’ve sort of double-whammied this, and I’m quite happy to accept that we’re not where we should be.

“But I’m also quite happy to tell you that I think we’re on the right track and we’ll get there.

“It would have been easy if I came in, take the team, pared everything back and played a really simple game.

“But that’s not going to win us a World Cup.

“We need to be able to play a number of different ways and we need an attack that’s unpredictable to the opposition, which at the moment is unpredictable to us too.”

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