Skelton interrupts Jones as coach takes blame for injury toll
Wallabies coach Eddie Jones says he blames himself for injuries to captain Will Skelton and prop Taniela Tupou in training in the run-up to the World Cup pool match against Fiji in mid-September.
Skelton, who suffered a calf strain, and Tupou, who was ruled out with a hamstring problem, were key to Jones's plan of combining forward power with backline flair in the key Pool C matches against Fiji and Wales, both of which were lost.
"The biggest loss we had in this tournament was losing Taniela and Will in one session and I blame myself for that," Jones told reporters at the team camp outside Saint Etienne on Friday.
"Just didn't get it right, the session. You never know with injuries, you never really know. But could we have done that a little bit differently? I keep thinking about that.
"To minimise the risk of damage, there's just an order of training, and the way you train. I hold my hands up."
Skelton intervened at this point to disagree with his coach.
"You can look at anything, if I had a half an hour more sleep, if I had drunk a litre more water. I think for those things, I'm in control," he said.
"Things happen and that's rugby, injuries happen during the week and in games. I (might) have got injured on the weekend against Fiji. It's unfortunate and I guess we've got to move on."
Jones said he was not trying to make excuses for Australia's poor showing at the tournament and said a better team would have been able to win without Skelton and Tupou.
"We've got to be good enough to cope with it," he said.
"They're the challenges of being a good team, the world's best teams get on with it. And we're not quite there yet. And that's the challenge. The challenge was to fill that gap to be able to cope with those situations."
The Wallabies have remained in France despite having completed their pool matches as a win for Portugal over Fiji on Sunday without the Pacific Islanders earning a bonus point would send Australia into the quarter-finals.
Jones reiterated that he took full responsibility for the disappointing campaign and said he would honour his contract until the end of 2027 if Rugby Australia did not sack him in the wake of a post-tournament review.
"This team is going to be a good team," he said.
"We need one or two quality players to add to it. We're not the finished product yet..."
Skelton and Tupou, he added, would be fit to play if Australia did squeak through to the knockout stages.
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> It would be best described as an elegant solution to what was potentially going to be a significant problem for new All Blacks coach Scott Robertson. It is a problem the mad population of New Zealand will have to cope with more and more as All Blacks are able to continue their careers in NZ post RWCs. It will not be a problem for coaches, who are always going to start a campaign with the captain for the next WC in mind. > Cane, despite his warrior spirit, his undoubted commitment to every team he played for and unforgettable heroics against Ireland in last year’s World Cup quarter-final, was never unanimously admired or respected within New Zealand while he was in the role. Neither was McCaw, he was considered far too passive a captain and then out of form until his last world cup where everyone opinions changed, just like they would have if Cane had won the WC. > It was never easy to see where Cane, or even if, he would fit into Robertson’s squad given the new coach will want to be building a new-look team with 2027 in mind. > Cane will win his selections on merit and come the end of the year, he’ll sign off, he hopes, with 100 caps and maybe even, at last, universal public appreciation for what was a special career. No, he won’t. Those returning from Japan have already earned the right to retain their jersey, it’s in their contract. Cane would have been playing against England if he was ready, and found it very hard to keep his place. Perform, and they keep it however. Very easy to see where Cane could have fit, very hard to see how he could have accomplished it choosing this year as his sabbatical instead of 2025, and that’s how it played out (though I assume we now know what when NZR said they were allowing him to move his sabbatical forward and return to NZ next year, they had actually agreed to simply select him for the All Blacks from overseas, without any chance he was going to play in NZ again). With a mammoth season of 15 All Black games they might as well get some value out of his years contract, though even with him being of equal character to Richie, I don’t think they should guarantee him his 100 caps. That’s not what the All Blacks should be about. He absolutely has to play winning football.
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