On a glorious winter’s afternoon, with the Brisbane city skyline as his backdrop, Wallabies coach Eddie Jones made his way across a small patch of scaffolding overlapping the pool at the Lina Rooftop Bar.
There to discuss the 2025 British & Irish Lions Tour, that series could not in fact be further to the back of Jones’ mind, sitting only slightly ahead of the planned Australia-New Zealand Invitational team he said he had little interest in offering any input into.
“Not very stable, mate,” Jones replied when asked about his side’s preparations for the Bledisloe Cup.
A shaky position on the temporary platform could not have been a better metaphor for the Wallabies’ current predicament.
Despite the laughter of the gathered dignitaries and media, the situation for Australia isn’t at all funny. Two defeats in two games, a drop to a lowly eighth in the World Rugby rankings, with back-to-back Bledisloe Cup games to come – this is not the narrative Rugby Australia had in mind when it dumped Dave Rennie and unveiled Jones with the kind of celebration usually reserved for major Test-match wins.
After Australia’s inglorious start to 2023, there is a big chance they won’t register one of those before the World Cup begins.
“Everyone has been disappointed. We went in with so much optimism heading to Pretoria, we start well and then don’t turn pressure into points, and then they do… and then at Loftus it gets away from you a bit once you’re down 17-5, they score after halftime and the game just slips away,” Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh said when asked about Jones’ first two games in charge.
“Argentina, patches were good, again a fast start but again they didn’t score as many points as they should have in the first 10-15 minutes so then the Argies got back into it; ill-discipline, Eddie talked about.
“But more broadly we’ve got to have aspirations to be No. 1 in the world, we’ve got to work hard and build that Australian culture of fighting hard, and that’s been our competitive edge for a long time. And I think with Eddie coming back and driving that passion and pride back in the jersey is important.”
There is no doubt that Jones has helped to put the Wallaby jersey back at the forefront of people’s minds, but his unofficial masters in marketing can only hang tough for so long, and would be killed off with another Bledisloe sweep, which the All Blacks have achieved in each of the past two years.
And No. 1 in the world? A return to the top four is a more realistic goal, and even that is a long way off.
New Zealand, meanwhile, will arrive at the MCG chock-full of confidence after impressive victories over both the Pumas and Springboks, results that have seemingly delivered answers to the problem positions at blindside flanker and fullback.
But was the 41-12 hammering of Argentina and the 35-20 win over South Africa, both which were built of blistering opening quarters, really that impressive?
Jones, unsurprisingly, isn’t so sure.
“We’ve got the Kiwis coming up and obviously they’ve got out of the blocks pretty quickly, which is a bit different for them in a World Cup year,” Jones said.
“Usually they have a much more moderated start and build up to the World Cup. But I think because of the change, or the change in coach post the World Cup, they’ve said ‘stuff this, we’re gonna go hard right from the first minute’.
“And so they haven’t been put under pressure yet, and our job is to put them under pressure. If you look at their first 20 minutes against South Africa, it was almost perfect rugby. Every kick they won in the air, they were good on the gainline, very smart about the way they played; so if we’re able to match that in the first 20 minutes and put a bit of pressure on them, then funny things can happen.”
Jones on Thursday unveiled an updated squad to face the All Blacks, with Tom Wright, Reece Hodge and Pete Samu the main casualties. Wright’s position as starting fullback was thought to be in serious jeopardy following two untimely errors against the Pumas, but to drop him from the squad altogether shows Jones has no time for inexcusable mistakes.
On the flipside, Jones has retained winger Suliasi Vunivalu despite a forgettable performance in Pretoria while the unused Ben Donaldson – who was arguably the most fortunate of any player to be selected in the original Rugby Championship squad – has also been granted a stay of execution as a “utility player” despite both Quade Cooper and Carter Gordon being miles ahead in the chief playmaker role.
Donaldson and Vunivalu are incredibly fortunate to still be in the squad.
Taniela Tupou, Andrew Kellaway, Jordan Petaia and Langi Gleeson all meanwhile return from injury and are available for selection.
And despite the doom and gloom of back-to-back defeats, there are several further positive narratives Jones and the Wallabies can draw on next week in Melbourne.
Firstly, the Wallabies, unlike 2022, have actually made decent starts themselves, drawing first blood against both the Springboks and Pumas. Secondly, Australia has won all three of their home Bledisloe encounters in each of the past three World Cup years. And, finally, they boast a 2-0 winning record against the All Blacks at the MCG.
“I’ve never coached there. What have I watched there? AFL, so I didn’t get too excited,” Jones said of the iconic venue. “But it’s a great ground and it’s the only ground where any team in the world has got a positive advantage over New Zealand.
“That’ll be sticking out the back of their minds. And maybe that might have a factor in the game. It’s a good narrative for us.”
But another defeat next week against the All Blacks and any remaining shred of a positivity will be eviscerated with it completely.
And Jones won’t find himself high up in the warm Brisbane air with a rooftop pool to help deflect from the Wallabies’ predicament. Their World Cup preparations will instead be sunk completely.