1
‘The economy is going to suffer’: Eddie Jones’ blunt message to All Blacks
By Finn Morton
Wallabies coach Eddie Jones believes the fate of the New Zealand economy rests on the All Blacks’ shoulders heading into this weekend’s Bledisloe Cup opener.
Yes, you read that right. The legendary coach said “the economy is going to suffer” if the All Blacks fail to beat their arch-rivals at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday.
After the Wallabies revealed their team to take on New Zealand, Jones spoke with reporters alongside acting captain Allan Alaalatoa.
With a smile on his face, the charismatic coach spoke for about 20 minutes about some bold selection decisions and, bizarrely, politics.
Jones is confident the Wallabies will turn their fortunes around against the All Blacks, and made sure to heap as much pressure as possible on Australia's heavily favoured rivals.
This isn't just about rugby anymore.
“Imagine Saturday night, 85,000 people, their biggest rugby crowd since 2007 and they’ve come to watch two teams that have got good respect for each other but at the same time they dislike each other,” Jones told reporters.
“There’s nothing better than winning against New Zealand because you feel the country sinking.
“It’s not just rugby that sinks, the country sinks. The whole economy goes down. The Prime Minister is there with his fingers crossed hoping the All Blacks win because he knows the economy is going to drop if they lose.
“We can have the effect and at the same time Australian kids want to play rugby again, because at the moment too many of them want to play AFL… we want to kids to play rugby because it’s the greatest game of all.
“Maybe put the New Zealand Prime Minister on call that the economy is going to suffer and at the same time raise our stakes here.”
The Wallabies are currently last on The Rugby Championship standings and the All Blacks occupy pole position.
The Aussies havee been beaten by both South Africa and Argentina this month. Looking to bounce back with a win at ‘the G,’ coach Jones has made some big changes.
Rising star Carter Gordon has been picked at flyhalf ahead of Quade Cooper, and will partner Queensland Reds halfback Tate McDermott in the halves.
Angus Bell, Nick Frost, Tom Hooper, Jordan Petaia and Andrew Kellaway have also been injected into the starting lineup. In total, Jones has made seven changes to the First XV.
“My history against New Zealand is important. It’s always the biggest game mate, you’re playing against the best in the world,” Jones added.
“When you’re playing against them, not many people think you can win so that’s the opportunity for us.
“We’re an Australian team, we’re developing, we’re moving along a pathway but can we put the Kiwis under pressure on Saturday? Yes, under a lot of pressure and maybe they’re going to get a bit of a surprise.
“We’re ready to go mate. We’ll see what happens.”
The Wallabies take on fierce rivals New Zealand at the world-famous Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday evening. If Australia lose, the Kiwis retain the Bledisloe Cup for at least another year.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Stuart Lancaster 'wants out' of Racing 92 and eyeing Euro giants job
3
Henry Arundell lined up for early England homecoming
4
Government provides bleak assessment on the state of the Premiership
5
Latest Comments
Well that sux.
Go to commentsLike I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.
Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about the worst teams not giving up because they are so far off the pace we get really bad scoreline when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together.
So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).
You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.
I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?
Go to comments