Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones has revealed why he hit out at reporters ahead of his team’s departure for the Rugby World Cup at Sydney Airport earlier this month.
Jones lost his cool in what he described as the “worst press conference” he has ever had in world rugby, and he took aim at the “negative” Australian media.
Protecting his young players
The 63-year-old is renowned for playing mind games and when asked about his outburst he admitted that it was a “bit of fun” but that it also had a serious side to it, in protecting his young squad.
“It was a bit of fun, I wanted to protect the team,” said Jones. “We’ve got to look after our team, we’ve got a young group of players and we want them to feel like there’s people behind them.
“I never have any regrets… I try to just be as honest as I can, be honest with my feelings and emotions and that’s how I felt at that time.”
Meanwhile, Jones said the Wallabies are working hard to find consistency in the way they play and his team need to bridge the divide between their best and worst performances.
Australia suffered a 41-17 defeat to France on Sunday and were left to rue several missed opportunities in that fixture. That means the Wallabies have lost all five of their matches since Jones took over the coaching reins from Dave Rennie at the start of the year.
Despite that statistic, Jones remains optimistic and feels his team’s fortunes will change at the upcoming Rugby World Cup in France.
“Our best moments were better than France, but our worst moments are far worse than France,” he told 2GB from France.
Consistency is important
“It’s all about consistency, about keep doing the simple things well and at the moment we don’t have the capacity to do that, but we’re slowly building.
“We’ve just got to be more consistent and that comes from a bit of mental toughness, it comes from the team fighting together in difficult situations and it comes from our capacity to repeat skill under pressure.
“Training is our avenue to improve and I can tell you we’re training at the absolute optimum we can, and we’ll get to the World Cup and we will be in great condition.”
READ MORE: The great Wallabies conundrum: Are they contenders or pretenders?
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