Opinion
Is Eddie Jones the sad clown of Australian rugby – or just diverting our attention?
Andrew Webster
Chief Sports WriterIt was Tony Soprano, as always, who said it best.
“I find I have to be the sad clown,” he told his psychiatrist, Dr Melfi, in the iconic mob TV series The Sopranos. “Laughing on the outside, crying on the inside.”
Maybe Eddie Jones is a sad clown, too.
The Wallabies coach smirks and laughs and jokes and rattles off one-liners whenever he’s in front of the media, even after humiliating losses such as the one against the All Blacks at the MCG last Saturday night.
He’s developed this interesting tendency in post-match media conferences of asking for more questions despite the Wallabies media manager, Marty Cambridge, trying to wrap it up.
“Had enough or do you want to keep going?” a grinning Jones asked reporters at the end of his 16-minute comedy show following the All Blacks’ defeat. “You can keep firing away.”
If you didn’t know any better, you would’ve thought the Wallabies had romped to a magnificent victory, not suffered a disheartening 38-7 loss, his third on the trot in this second coming as national coach.
Which makes me worry that Jones is the sad clown, laughing on the outside but crying on the inside knowing he’s been given the onerous task of saving Australian rugby.
In his serious moments, though, Jones has admitted that resetting rugby will be much tougher, longer and painful than he expected – which comes as no surprise to those at the coalface who identified long ago that the disconnect between schoolboy rugby, club rugby and Super Rugby is strangling the game.
There’s chatter in the background about Jones’ end-date. He’s contracted until the end of the 2027 World Cup, but there’s a fear the British and Lions tour of Australia in 2025 might do him.
Let’s hope not because Jones and chairman Hamish McLennan are the best things going for rugby as it crawls to the line of private equity. You just hope there’s some substance behind the public declarations that things are going to turn.
Eddie Jones is laughing now — but for how much longer?Credit: Getty
Promoting the game is part of Jones’ remit. In an interview last week with the Australian Financial Review, he admitted poaching rugby league centre Joseph Suaalii was largely about “marketing”.
“You’ve got to tell people rugby is back, and by buying a rugby league player you can send that message,” he said.
I suspect Jones is less sad clown than cunning streetfighter straight outta Matraville High who became national coach of Australia, Japan and England.
Surely, though, discerning judges can see Eddie’s stand-up routines for what they are: a diversion from the dire state of the Wallabies with the World Cup in France only weeks away.
It’s a move straight out of the playbooks of Sir Alex Ferguson and Wayne Bennett. Crack a joke, fire up, talk about another issue, look over there – just don’t look at my battling football team.
Former Springboks loosehead prop Tendai Mtawarira called out the gibber when Jones said two days before the match against the All Blacks, “There’s nothing better than winning against New Zealand because you feel the country sinking. Put the NZ Prime minister on call that the economy is going to suffer.”
Boom-boom! Daryl Somers had better lines at the Logies.
It was all too much for Mtawarira, otherwise known as “The Beast”, who tweeted: “Handle your business first, Eddie. Too much chit-chat.”
A tweet from a retired Springbok forward neatly captured what Wallabies fans were thinking.
Jones’ theatrics were always going to generate interest for Australian rugby, and while it’s been entertaining at times nothing puts arses in the seats and eyeballs on the telly like a successful Wallabies team capable of beating New Zealand. They meet in Dunedin on Saturday and it threatens to get ugly.
Nevertheless, Jones needs to be cut some slack.
McLennan snapped him up a year earlier than expected after he was sacked by England. It’s been too easily forgotten that he inherited a losing team from Dave Rennie, his options in the forwards and particularly the halves are limited, and he’s losing players all over the place to injury.
Amid the banter after the loss to New Zealand was his admission that his team wasn’t fit enough, flaming out well before full-time. That’s hard to comprehend of a professional team.
But Jones is only three matches into a five-year tenure, so perhaps, like all the great comedians, his best punchline will be his last – a World Cup victory on home soil in 2027.
Until then, we can probably expect more Jones smoke and mirrors.
On Thursday morning, Jones had flicked the switch and was back to his combative best, just as he was in his final months in charge of England, squabbling with reporters about criticism of his rookie No.10 Carter Gordon.
From sad clown to cranky coach. It’s hard to keep up.
Mark of a champion
Of all the footage shown of Lance Franklin’s stellar career – which ended this week after he announced his retirement – the shot that resonated most was from a helicopter above the SCG when he kicked his 1000th goal in round two last year.
It showed thousands of people charging the field, all headed for Franklin who had just landed the major score in front of the Dally Messenger Stand.
Scenes: Lance Franklin celebrates his 1000th AFL goal with fans at the SCG in March.Credit: Getty
Like ants on a discarded salt and vinegar chip, they jumped the fence and swarmed Franklin in a matter of seconds.
Following lengthy discussions earlier in the week between the Swans, police, security, Venues NSW staff and Franklin himself, the plan had been for Franklin to be hurried off the field and through the nearest exit as soon he landed the milestone goal.
But Franklin remained unmoved after the kick, allowing himself to be mobbed before being hoisted into the air by his teammates. Security eventually found him and ushered him to the Swans change room.
Asked by officials the next day why he didn’t leave the field, he recalled the time at Hawthorn in 2008 when he kicked a hundred goals in a season and fled the scene. He regretted it and, this time, wanted to savour it on the field then inside the sheds with his fellow Bloods.
Much like Tony Lockett and Barry Hall, Franklin leaves an indelible mark on Sydney and most of it through actions, not words. He barely did a media interview in his decade here, so it was no surprise he announced his retirement via Instagram and not a media conference.
How lucky Sydney was to have him.
New gig for Gallop
We told you in May – in a world exclusive – that former Labor premier Morris Iemma would be the next chairman of Venues NSW.
Now we can tell you that former NRL and FA chief executive David Gallop is firming to join him on a new-look board later in the year.
Former FA and NRL boss David Gallop.Credit: James Brickwood
Gallop has strong support among current directors and rightly so: given his experience running two major football codes and knowledge of the Sydney sporting landscape, his appointment makes sense.
If he does get a start, he’s likely to be one of three former rugby league bosses on the board, joining Todd Greenberg and John Quayle.
There had been talk about Quayle stepping down, but influential NSW government types want him to remain.
Bol could sue for damages
Australian middle-distance runner Peter Bol hasn’t ruled out taking legal action against Sports Integrity Australia, which earlier this week abandoned its investigation into whether he had taken the banned substance EPO.
The 29-year-old was finally cleared after SIA admitted his A-sample was actually negative, not positive as first thought.
Bol said in March he wasn’t considering legal action, saying he just wanted the system to change so no athlete went through what he had.
That could change once he gets through the world championships in Budapest later this month.
His legal fees are in the hundreds of thousands and while sponsors Longines, Voost Supplements and Adidas stayed loyal, he lost tens of thousands of dollars in speaking gigs.
THE QUOTE
“To be honest, Phil Gould’s criticism of other clubs is becoming tiresome.” South Sydney chief executive Blake Solly responds to Gould’s comments on 100% Footy in which he strangely questioned Latrell Mitchell’s big-game credentials at fullback.
THUMBS UP
A hero is only as good as his villain so, with that in mind, let’s celebrate the career of England bowler Stuart Broad, who has retired from Test cricket. Yes, he’s very irritating. You’d love to upend him as he celebrates a wicket. And, for some reason, I can’t cop that thick sweatband he wears on his head. But thank you, Stuart, for being you.
The game won’t quite be the same without Stuart Broad ... or his annoying headband.Credit: Getty Images
THUMBS DOWN
Meanwhile, a Test umpire is only as good as the replacement ball he selects from a box of replacement balls. England deserved their fifth Test victory, but let’s not kid ourselves: the match swung on the controversial change of balls in Australia’s second innings. Imagine the outcry if it had been England.
IT’S A BIG WEEKEND FOR …
Storm fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen, who returns from a shattered patella suffered in round 18 last year. Papenhuyzen will line up for the Sunshine Coast Falcons against the Ipswich Jets in the Queensland Cup on Saturday. Plenty of doctors who saw the scan reckoned he’d never play again. But he will. So there.
IT’S AN EVEN BIGGER WEEKEND FOR …
Tony Gustavsson, the Matildas coach who apparently can’t coach, although he must know something about coaching after his side reached the round of 16 without their superstar player, Sam Kerr, playing a single minute. The Matildas play Denmark at Accor Stadium on Monday.