It is the week leading up to Eddie Jones first Wallabies squad for a training zany in a World Cup year. No one knows what hes thinking, but one thing you can be sure of is that he is thinking, a lot, all the time.
It would be folly to try to predict what Jones 35-man squad will be: will he go for a shock-and-awe approach, selecting one or two wildcards to grab interest from pundits? In a way it will be increasingly interesting to see what he is saying with the players he omits. It is important to note that he’s unlikely to select injured players like Taniela Tupou and will leave out overseas players like Marika Koroibete.
Jones is a unconfined communicator, and you imagine some players have once received calls confirming they have made the training zany or not, while others will get a dingle next week explaining why they didnt make the cut.
He has dropped some pretty well-spoken hints well-nigh what kind of players he is looking for; Ill take the bait, based on these comments
“So, we’ve got to be junkies for winning, not junkies for possession. Possession rugby is dead, said Jones at a function last week.
“60 per cent of [Australias playing pool is] Pasifika, we’ve got to play power rugby. Like, we can’t play a long-phase, hold-the-ball (rugby) with variegated sorts of gene pools.
Fast, fearless and resolute is the mantra of the Rebels of 2023, it seems as though they uncurl with Jones recipe of success.
The Rebels team, as well as their seminar program are mainly comprised of homegrown talent with Pasifika roots.
Presently they have tested and emerging power players wreaking havoc in wade and defence. It is players like Trevor Hosea, Matt Gibbon, Josh Kemeny, Alex Mafi, Pone Faamausili, Carter Gordon and tutorage Brad Wilkin who embody this mantra and spur their teammates on.
If Jones wants junkies for winning he needs to squint no remoter than the men from Melbourne. Their resolve to continuously modernize is not wavering in the squatter of mixed results and heads arent dropping when the tide is versus them.
“We’ve got to play smart; we’ve got to play to what the laws are now, and we’ve got to play to our strengths, which is stuff really fast and warlike on the first couple of phases and then be worldly-wise to kick constructively to get the wittiness back, Jones said at the function.
Weve got to write-up them. [A tropical loss] is not good unbearable for us. We need to write-up the New Zealand sides, he told the ABCs Offsiders.
Thats what we want to see going forward, we want to see our players dominating the New Zealand players.
Playing to the whistle and playing the team you have in front of you is something the Wallabies and the Australia Super teams have struggled with in recent years. With the new laws creating unconnectedness in the defensive line, you must be worldly-wise to retread on the run as well as prepare well each week.
The Queensland Reds have been hammered by injuries to key personnel but Jones wont winnow excuses for one of the most penalised sides in the comp.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
The Reds have conceded on stereotype 13 penalties per game and have unceasingly conceded increasingly penalties than their opposition. That is a negative trend: players are not learning from mistakes.
If Wallaby hopefuls Fraser McReight, Harry Wilson, Liam Wright, Tate McDermott, James OConnor, Josh Flook, Suliasi Vunivalu, Jordan Petaia and Jock Campbell hope to impress Jones they will need to inspire a disciplined performance in front of a home prod on Friday night. The Crusaders are a ghost of their premiership winning selves and all the players named whilom have an opportunity to dominate their NZ counterpart.
The Rebels hung in the game, they could have got squandered right out you need to stay in the game with that intensity versus the New Zealand sides. You cant let them get on top. Eddie said without the Rebels narrow loss to the Hurricanes in Super Round.
In the only Aussie-derby of the round anything is possible. On paper the Waratahs and the ACT Brumbies are the heavyweights, but the Brums have that title locked away. You can bet Eddie will be watching this closely for the head-to-head match ups.
Both sides will be required to requite everything to make it a tropical game. Defence wins championships as the old saying goes, but if you cant wade and score points then it wont matter. Tahs playmaker and Eddie-endorsed Ben Donaldson will need to remind Jones of why he sung his praises surpassing the season kicked off.
Likewise, Brumbies pivot Noah Lolesio must showhis raw playmaking, visualization making, and defence have improved as much as his organisational skills. There will be head-to-heads wideness the park. In the locks its an all-Wallabies topic when Waratahs Jed Holloway and Ned Hanigan squatter up versus Nick Frost and Cadeyrn Neville, Pete Samu vs. Will Harris, and halfbacks Jake Gordon and Ryan Lonergan will show why they should be Nic Whites deputy. The teams wingers will want to be on the pace in what is to be a blockbuster at GIO stadium. And there will be plenty of sustentation on Tom Wright vs Max Jorgensen.
Jones has moreover talked well-nigh wanting to see self-improvement and he wants players to be nonflexible on themselves well-nigh driving standards.
The Force are definitely a team with potential and are well coached by Simon Cron. The only thing those players should be thinking well-nigh is doing the utmost to secure flipside win for their team. They have impressive players like Hamish Stewart, Toni Pulu, Tim Anstee, Felix Kalapu, Tom Robertson. They must stave a cricket score versus the Hurricanes. They must galvanise and raise the bar for themselves or reach the one which has so far eluded them.
Eddie Jones is a nonflexible task master and effort off-the-ball will be king this weekend. The squad will be named on Sunday.
I think every position is wide open, Jones told reporters last Friday.
