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‘I can deal with that’: Eddie Jones laughs off ‘unpopular’ crowd reaction
By Finn Morton
For the second night in a row, more than 75,000 rugby supporters brought a breathtaking level of passion, energy and noise to Stade de France for a Rugby World Cup clash.
Hosts France defeated the All Blacks in the tournament opener, and thousands were back at the Parisian venue less than 24 hours later for a Pool C clash between Australia and Georgia.
The atmosphere at both World Cup matches was simply incredible. Fans were singing and chanting well before the opening whistle, and their vibrancy carried on deep into the night.
But from the moment the tournament began with a Beauden Barrett kick-off at 9.18 pm on Friday, fans were seemingly engulfed by the occasion. They cheered and didn’t boo – well until Eddie arrived.
Well-known rugby guru Eddie Jones was shown on the big screen a few times during the Wallabies’ win, and clearly, the coach holds a “consistently unpopular” reputation amongst fans.
Fans booed and whistled every time Jones was shown on the big screen, but the Australian couldn’t help but laugh it off after the match.
“Obviously I’m not popular, mate, at least it’s consistent,” Jones told reporters on Saturday.
“You either want to be popular or unpopular, so at least I’m consistently unpopular. I can deal with that.”
The Wallabies got off to a perfect start on the sport's biggest stage with centre Jordan Petaia placing the ball down for the opening try of the Test after just two minutes.
Petaia was a man on a mission during the early exchanges, with the utility setting up wing Mark Nawaqanitawase for a score shortly after with a brilliant one-handed offload.
The Wallabies were very much in control by half-time, and Georgia wing Mirian Modebadze had just been sent to the sin bin too which didn't help their cause of a comeback.
Georgia showed mere glimpses of brilliance throughout the 80 minutes, but the result was never really in doubt as the Wallabies secured their first win since November.
“When you’ve got a young team, haven’t been doing well and getting criticised, you can go into your shell a little bit,” Jones said on the field.
“I thought they came out in the first half and put a conclusive performance together.”
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Latest Comments
Some interesting stats that just proved what my first impression of NZ’s drive to speed up Rugby Union would amount to - fine margins here and there to cut a few seconds off the game and nothing else. To do more there would have to be wholesale changes to the game like doing away with scrums, lineouts and bringing back the ELV’s to have free kicks instead of penalties. Very little chance of it happening but, in the end, Ruby Union would be a 15-man version of Rugby League. There are reasons why Rugby Union is globally more popular that Rugby League and what NZ are also not considering is the unintended consequences of what they want to achieve. This will end up turning Rugby Union into a low value product that will not be acceptable to the paying public. If people really wanted a sped-up version of rugby, then why is Rugby Union globally way more popular than Rugby League? Rugby lovers all over the world are also not stupid and have seen through what NZ are trying to achieve here, selfishly to bring back their glory days of dominance over every other nation and compete with Rugby League that is dominant in Australasia. NH countries just don’t have the cattle, or the fantastic weather needed to play like NZ SR franchises do so good luck to whoever has to try and convince the NH to accept going back to the days of NZ dominance and agreeing to wreck the game in the process. I have serious doubts on the validity of the TV stats presented by GP. All they did was expand the broadcasting base by putting it on free to air, not even any indication of arresting the continued drop in viewership. Match day attendance goes hand in hand with broadcast ratings so if there was an increase in the one you should expect to see it with the other. However, the drop in match day attendance is very evident to the casual highlights package viewer. The only club who looks to be getting solid attendance is the Drua. I am calling it now that NZ’s quest to speed up the game will fail and so will the vote on the 20-minute red card.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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