Eddie Jones says the Wallabies will “go hell for leather” in the Rugby Championship to build excitement for their World Cup campaign.
Jones was speaking during a wide-ranging interview with The Roar, during which he discussed his plans for the upcoming Test season.
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During the interview, Jones, who returned for his second stint as Wallabies head coach in January, was asked about how he planned to balance the demands of the upcoming season, which includes a truncated Rugby Championship before the France-based World Cup.
“Nah, mate, in all frankness, we are going hell for leather,” he said. “It’s a sprint, you know. We’ve got a 1,200-metre sprint. Go to Pretoria, then the Bledisloe Cup, the Rugby Championship…
“Without taking the games for granted in the pools, that will be the first game that we need to peak for, the quarter-final. So we will go hell out for the Rugby Championship because we need to win, we need to get people excited about the Wallabies again.
“If we are good enough, we win that and we go in [to the World Cup] with a fair bit of confidence and a fair bit of support.”
Jones confirmed that unlike the Springboks and All Blacks, who have both named expanded squads of at least 35 players, the Wallabies will stick to 33 for the Rugby Championship, not including any players recovering from injury.
“We gonna keep it small. I don’t want this to be about selection, I want this to be about building a team that is capable of winning the World Cup. So we will only go with 33 and then any rehab players that we have.”
Jones made no secret of Australia’s struggles at both club and international level, but laid the challenge for his players to improve.
“Let’s face the facts, Australia has won 38% of their Tests since 2015. There are not too many players here who have done well. That’s the reality of the situation. In Super Rugby, we have had one team who have won 50% of their games in the last eight years, the rest have won 40%.
“The players need to improve. I’m not going to play the game, I’m going to create the environment for them to be better.
“The players are going to play the game and they’ve got to accept that they are part of the problem and a massive part of the solution. If they are prepared to work hard and be smart about their preparations, more focused, then we can smash and grab, win the Bledisloe Cup, Rugby Championship and the World Cup. Imagine that?”
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