Eddie Jones has returned to Australia to save the day. While that may sound like typical journalistic hyperbole, on that point, we'd ask you to keep an open mind. In January, when Jones began his second term as Wallabies coach (his first ended way back in 2005, when John Howard was Prime Minister), he took the reins of a national side that had been sputtering for what felt like forever. The Wallabies haven't won a World Cup since 1999. More troublingly, they've lost the last 20 Bledisloe Cup series, the annual trans-Tasman showdown. On last year's Spring Tour, they suffered a first-ever defeat to Italy - a nadir for Jones' predecessor, Dave Rennie, who had a win rate of 38 per cent when Rugby Australia sacked him to clear the way for Jones' return.
As onerous as the task of making the Wallabies winners again would appear to be, the new coach faces a more daunting challenge still: to make Test rugby appealing again to generations of Australian fans feeling disillusioned with a code that has lost touch with its roots and become so maddeningly over-officiated as to become, at times, unwatchable. At the age of 63, Jones has assumed responsibilities that include not just the fortunes of his team but the long-term viability of the sport.
The signs suggest he understands this all too well. The thrust of his early statements is that he intends for the Wallabies to play an attractive brand of rugby, high on precision and fervour. He is not, however, promising a wholly adventurous approach, because such a style is only sometimes a winning style. Rather, he aims to strike a balance between flair and pragmatism - a balance that has eluded the Wallabies but a must to acquire if they’re to threaten at this year’s Rugby World Cup, in France.
Jones consented to this wide-ranging interview with British journalist Alastair Campbell late last year while Jones was still coaching England. Subsequently, the RFU sacked him on 7 December in response to faltering results towards the end of an otherwise successful seven-year stint. We’re running the interview here largely uncut. As a rugby brain and leader of men, can Jones transform the Wallabies and have them World Cup-ready in a matter of months? You be the judge. - DW
Men's Health: So, whether playing or coaching, what is the balance between the physical and the mental?
I have never separated the two. I grew up in Australia, lived a healthy lifestyle, always
