Wallabies coach Eddie Jones didn’t order his gamers off social media amid a torrid blowback after their World Cup loss to Fiji that has put their match marketing campaign on the precipice of catastrophe.
A day after apologising and taking all of the blame for the primary loss to the Fijians in almost 70 years, Jones declared “these are the weeks you really remember” as his group prepares for a must-win conflict towards Wales to keep away from an early World Cup exit.
The Wallabies have been ridiculed, criticised and even lampooned within the wake of the limp loss to Fiji, a fifth in six Tests since Jones retook management of the group and vowed to make Australian rugby nice once more by taking a brush to the squad and injecting new blood.
So far his plans have backfired badly and Jones conceded he was “still searching for answers” to show the Wallabies into the group he hoped they might be.
Be he insisted motivation was no drawback forward of the conflict with Wales that Australia should win to be any probability of progressing to the quarter-finals.
“I woke up this morning hoping the result was different but it was still the same,” Jones mentioned.
“The only thing we‘re worried about is Wales this week. We’d be happy to play them tomorrow if they were willing to play … we can’t wait for the challenge.
“There’s no problem with motivation. This team cares a lot about their performance.”
A optimistic for the Wallabies is a victory in the latest conflict with Wales in Cardiff final 12 months.
But Jones mentioned having their backs towards the wall, once more, supplied his gamers the prospect to do one thing particular.
“These are the weeks you really remember when you‘re under the pump quite a lot and you’ve got to produce a good performance,” he mentioned.
“This is probably one of the biggest challenges for this team and the coaching staff, but we know how we want to play against Wales.
“We‘re going to work really hard to get the players back on track, so to speak, because when you have a loss like this, it knocks you around a bit, it knocks you around emotionally, it knocks around the team ethic wise, you start seeing shadows in every corner of the room, there’s noise from outside which you’ve got to handle.
“And that‘s the challenge for the coaching staff this week to make sure they got the right noise.”
Jones mentioned whereas the critics got here out in drive after the Fiji loss, he didn’t want to inform his gamers to keep away from the surface noise, which would come with staying off social media the place abuse may be at its worst.
“That’s an individual choice for each player,” he mentioned.
“They make their own decision on how they deal with social media. That’s not for us to tell them how to do it.
“Everyone makes a choice on how they run their lives. And for the players, it’s their choice.”
Jones additionally defended the efficiency of rookie five-eighth Carter Gordon, who he subbed off with half-hour to go towards France regardless of not having specialist back-up.
“I don’t think there’s any team in the world that doesn’t target the opposition 10, so that’s fairly normal practice,” he mentioned.
“I can’t recall any team not doing that. They’re the key player, they’re obviously the conductor of the team and if you can get to them, you get to them.
“There’s various ways you can look after your 10 and we’ll have a look at that this week.”
The Wallabies get halfback Tate McDermott again for the Wales conflict however shall be with out injured captain Will Skelton and star prop Taniela Tupou.
Source: www.news.com.au