Eddie Jones weighs in on TMO controversy

Ahead of Australia’s crucial clash with Fiji in Saint-Étienne on Sunday, the combative head coach delivers his assessment on the state of international rugby.

Less focus on power, more continuous play and a serious rethink about the use of the Telivision Match Official (TMO) – these are Eddie Jones’ latest manifesto points for a better, healthier game.

The Australia head coach may have a squad to prepare for a critical World Cup match against Fiji, but that did not stop him from sharing his thoughts on where international rugby, and those in charge, need to improve.

“You can see in this World Cup the game is evolving into these 30-second bouts of absolute power,” Jones said. “Big people (are) playing the game, so, you've got these 30-second bouts of power then interspersed with a two-minute burst of ‘soccer’ where there is a lot of transition and you've got to be able to play really quickly.

"I think it's really fascinating at the moment where the game will go next. World Rugby have tried to make the game safer but they've made it more powerful, by having more stoppages in the game. And there's risks to that, there's risks when the game becomes more powerful.”

On a day when Jones was having to deal with the damaging prospect of skipper Will Skelton joining other injured Wallaby big guns, prop Taniela Tupou and first-choice scrum-half Tate McDermott, on the sidelines, he was adamant that “this World Cup is going to be decided by who can win those power contests”.

The man who took England to the final four years ago did acknowledge that facing Fiji is one of the few games where the transitional ‘soccer-like’ play takes on added importance. But most of the time, it is the power game that wins out and that, according to Jones, is not good news.

“You know the average ball-in-play is 30 seconds, the average break-in-play is 70 seconds, so you encourage a power contest. We need more continuous play,” he argued.

"We are lucky because international rugby is so popular. You look at Lille last night, 50,000 there to watch France play Uruguay. We play a practice game (pre-Rugby World Cup) against France, there's 80,000 people there. International rugby is so popular we could almost put anything on the field and people are still going to come because of the nationalism and patriotism of the teams.

"But we really need to improve the game.”

Jones’ World Cup coaching record is second to very few. With two finals appearances plus arguably the greatest shock ever to his name as head coach, and a winner’s medal from his time as assistant coach to the Springboks in 2007, the 63-year-old has just about done it all.

But preparing a team to take on the 2023 demands of being both uber-powerful and yet able to occasionally switch and play at super-speed is a live challenge.

"Coaching-wise, I think how you prepare S&C-wise (strength and conditioning) for almost two different games is quite intriguing,” Jones said. “And then how you get the players to have the skillset to be able to play this power game and at the same time be able to play an open, transitional game."

Should Jones manage to achieve the feat and get his power players tuned up to compete with Fiji’s counter-attacking, counter-rucking specialists, his side will have almost guaranteed their spot in the quarter-finals. But before turning his full attention back to that task, Jones had time for one more swipe at modern rugby.

“I think our use of the TMO in rugby is fraught with danger. They are asking a referee in the grandstand to make decisions on a different angle on the game, through video. It's not making the game a better spectacle, it's not making a better game for the players.”