Quade Cooper identifies Eddie Jones’ weakness which led to Wallabies’ downfall
Former Wallabies playmaker Quade Cooper and head coach Eddie Jones.
Former Wallabies fly-half Quade Cooper has highlighted the importance of structure in the modern game and feels being without it was the reason for Australia’s horrendous form in 2023.
Under the mentorship of Eddie Jones, Australia won just two out of nine Tests last year – against Tier 2 nations Georgia and Portugal – which is a 22% win ratio – the worst record of any Wallabies coach.
Cooper was part of the Wallabies squad in 2023, after being recalled by ex-Australia head coach Dave Rennie the previous year, but was sensationally dropped by Jones when he announced his Rugby World Cup squad.
Identifying Eddie Jones’ weakness
And the playmaker, who currently plays for Japan Rugby League One side Hanazono Kintetsu Liners, gave a fascinating insight into where he felt it went wrong under Jones, saying the veteran coach’s inability to embrace structure led to the Wallabies’ downfall.
“Well, I think the hardest thing was that last year, so what Eddie wanted to implement was like zero structure, right?” Cooper told the Behind the Ruck podcast.
“So, you weren’t allowed to have any detail, which (if) you think about rugby now, I get the concept of what he was trying to do. Because I think what he was trying to do is just get people to just play more what’s in front (of them).
“But nowadays it’s nearly impossible to do that. You need an element of structure because you need to know where people are going to be. So, if you look back at our games last year, during the Rugby Championship, we got turned over the most at the rucks out of any team in the Rugby Championship.
Quade Cooper’s view on Wallabies’ ‘hardest game’ of the Rugby Championship
“And that was just because we were all second guessing, like no one knew if they were supposed to be at a ruck. So you had guys like hesitating and not going to rucks.”
Cooper revealed that it’s quite noticeable that the Wallabies have abandoned that approach under the guidance of their new coach, Joe Schmidt, and that decision has benefitted the players.
“So what I’ve noticed with the guys now, from this year, is obviously they’ve implemented the structure back into it,” added the 36-year-old.
‘A little bit more freedom’
“And I think that the upside is that a lot of the boys also have the ability to play how we were playing last year with a little bit more freedom in the sense of if there’s zero structure at all, you’re going to start throwing the balls.
“You’re seeing a lot more offloads from the boys and you’re seeing a lot more of the boys trying to keep the ball alive, but with the balance of having that structure.”
He added: “So I think that you’re seeing a guy like Tom Wright, you’re seeing how much he’s flourishing at the moment because yes, there’s structure, but that’s allowing open space and time with the ball out in the wide edges.
“You know, you’re getting a guy like (Filipo) Daugunu being able to flourish in those first few games because he has the ability to just roam around the field and he’s super athletic, but there’s structure all throughout the field, which is allowing him to be able to leave his wing, know when a ruck’s going to be set up and where he can inject himself.”
