Australia’s new head coach Eddie Jones has set his sights on regaining the Bledisloe Cup after 21 years of hurt for the country.
The former England boss was ironically in charge of the Wallabies the last time they claimed the trophy way back in 2002.
Since then, the All Blacks have utterly dominated the rivalry and it doesn’t look like changing any time soon.
Last year was deemed the Wallabies’ best chance in a while to finally end their hoodoo against their arch-rivals, but New Zealand ended up winning both matches.
Jones’ impact
However, if someone can make an immediate impression and turn their fortunes around, it is Jones.
The 63-year-old is renowned for making an impact from the start, like he did with England, and will look to do the same with Australia.
“Beat New Zealand, mate. That’s the only thing,” Jones told Newstalk ZB when asked about his first target.
“It’s been 21 years since we won the Bledisloe Cup. For a two-team competition the law of averages isn’t right.
“We play New Zealand at Melbourne cricket ground. It’s the only ground in the world where Australia has a positive advantage in terms of wins and losses over New Zealand. So it’s a great way to kick off. So that’s all we’re thinking about at the moment.”
Australia will have two matches before they face the All Blacks, with South Africa and Argentina first up in the Rugby Championship.
Focus will then turn to the Bledisloe Cup before preparations really go up a notch for the World Cup which begins in September.
“The only thing I’m thinking about is the next nine and a half months, because in reality what I can control is to get the team ready firstly for the Rugby Championship and the Bledisloe Cup and then to the World Cup,” Jones said.
Follow in South Africa’s footsteps
Despite Australia’s struggles since the previous global tournament, their new head coach, who replaced Dave Rennie in January, has taken inspiration from South Africa’s success in 2019.
“If you look at the history of the World Cup, I think one of the interesting things is what South Africa did last in the last World Cup. In 2018, they were a bit of a mess, winning at under 40 per cent,” the Wallabies’ boss said.
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“There was great disgruntlement with the way they were playing and Rassie Erasmus comes in and basically goes back to traditional Springboks rugby and they win the World Cup.
“So there’s no reason why we can’t do that.”
He added: “There’s enough talented players here. Like any country we might be skinny in one or two positions. You look at Ireland, the best team in the world at the moment, but they lose Johnny Sexton and are they the best team in the world? And that’s a completely centrally contracted country.
“We’ve got some depth problems, there’s no doubt about it, but I think we’ve got enough talented players and I think under Dave [Rennie] the team has shown that they can compete with anyone in the world — take an Ireland to three points, France to three points, drawn with New Zealand, beaten South Africa. So the track record is there.
“What the teams are unable to do is to do that with any of the consistency and to win a World Cup, you got to win seven in a row.”
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