England supremo Eddie Jones believes coach Dave Rennie has made the Wallabies “more organised” than the sides he dominated in the Michael Cheika reign.
Jones is excited about Saturday night’s huge showdown at Suncorp Stadium as both a pivotal Test in this series and as a pressure test for the new-look team he wants to forge under fire.
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Any 25-minute media session with Jones and the engaging rugby computer in his head is always like a five-setter at Wimbledon with ground strokes pinging back and forth.
He’ll smash away questions he thinks inane, give piercing insights to pet topics, throw in riddles that are wild goose chases, state the obvious like it’s the most insightful page from Bezonomics and also tell it straight.
In no particular order, he gave intriguing slants on Rennie-Cheika teams, winding back the TMO, why he’s picked a centre with an Aussie accent, the return of a mad dog No.7 and the “fallacy” that Jonny Hill’s rough stuff was premeditated.
Jones had an 7-0 slate over the Cheika teams between 2016-2019 before winning the first encounter with Rennie’s Wallabies at Twickenham last November.
Last weekend’s 30-28 loss to the Wallabies has heaped extra heat on the Jones reign although one of the world’s most successful coaches will never show it.
Rennie v Cheika?
“The Wallabies are definitely more organised. Cheika’s teams played with a lot of aggression, a lot of passion. But, as a coach from Randwick, it’s generally more individual, less organised team (patterns),” Jones said.
“The Kiwi coaches tend to be better organised and they tend to play certain patterns and you see that with the Australian side now.”
Jones met with second Test referee Andrew Brace, of Ireland, on Thursday and already knows the match is going to be officiated differently to the handling of Kiwi James Doleman in the Perth Test.
“We have a different ref on Saturday who will referee differently. We are prepared for that,” Jones said.
“We had a chat with him. It’s obvious he’s going to referee differently. He likes a lot more contest so it will be a hard-fought area.”
Jones has reactivated Sam Underhill at openside flanker for his 29th Test. That means a thumping tackling presence and a thieving breakdown pest if he gets it right like he did in his command performance in the 2019 World Cup quarter-final against the Wallabies.
An Underhill in that form with Brace allowing more armwrestles for the ball will slow down the quality of ball for the Wallabies unless they are super sharp themselves.
Jones made it clear how the Wallabies stepping up in the second half in Perth stymied the very basis of England’s six-year superiority complex over Australia.
“We didn’t get any set piece dominance against them and, to dent the Australian psyche when they are playing England, getting some will make a hell of a difference,” Jones said.
It’s physicality. It always is. That’s part of the reason that English-born former Sydney University player Guy Porter, 25, is making his Test debut in the centres.
“He plays a good physical game and against the Australian backs we need to be physical,” Jones said.
“Porter plays with a lot of punch, he takes the line on and gets between defenders as well. The way Australia defends you have to be able to do that.”
Jones has clear ideas where the smothering presence of referees and TMOs in every game has to head.
It will be music to most ears that it has to retreat to getting the big answers right on tryline calls and foul play so the game speeds up.
“I’ve got the greatest sympathy for refs where every decision is checked and looked at,” Jones said.
“We play a game that’s a contest game, so every breakdown, every scrum, every lineout and every high ball is a contest. They’ve got to adjudicate on about 180 contests in the game and we’re expecting them to be right 100 per cent of the time.
“What we are asking from them is unrealistic. That’s not the way you want it but the way it is so you’ve got to be good at adapting to a ref’s decisions.
“The TMO sees something different to the referee. Slow motion in a collision is not the best evidence. You’ve only got to talk to biomechanists, you can’t judge collision intent through slow-motion action but we are doing that. It makes the game extremely complicated.
“You watch the NRL here in Australia...20 years ago you could strike in the play-the-ball, you could strip the ball when you carried and you could hook in scrums.
“They took all those contests out to make the game fast and quick and that is why people love it.
“Our game is a lot more complicated and a lot more difficult.
“TMOs are adjudicating on refs quite unfairly. I just think we have to pull back and accept the game is going to have errors. What we do need is the big decisions...on tries and red cards. We’ve got to get those right.
“We don’t want foul play in the game. Use the TMO to eradicate foul play and get tryline calls right and then accept some human errors.
“The game is too slow, mate.”
Jones didn’t buy into lock Jonny Hill’s face-shoving and hairpulling of Wallaby Darcy Swain being a cunning premeditated strategy that drew the card it hoped to.
“I don’t place any credence on that story...nice bit of fallacy, mate,” Jones said succinctly.
Jones has had two decades in Test rugby to become nearly impervious to the impatience of rugby supporters like those in England right now unnerved by a modest Six Nations campaign and the Perth loss.
Jones got a gem of a result by injecting rookie Henry Arundell from the bench in Perth. The winger’s late try was an uplifting masterpiece of solo skill.
The coach is backing winger Tommy Freeman, 21, and halfback Jack van Poortvliet, 21, to start in this crunch Test with Arundell, 19, on the bench.
That’s no conservative roll of the dice. Many coaches would never gamble on such a youth solution.
“These are the great opportunities for a team to go forward, these pressure games where you know the series is on the line. This is a fantastic opportunity for a team to grow and for an experienced, strong pack and a young, exciting backline to show what sort of rugby they can play,” Jones said.
Jones may find a potential 2023 Rugby World Cup star in the furnace just as the Wallabies hope to do the same by winning the series at Suncorp Stadium.
