Australia faces different challenges at this year’s Rugby World Cup but with the same coach who will use their underdog status as fuel
“You definitely knew with Eddie what was required to be your best,” he says. “He had a very, very direct way.
Outside the head coach and a hot camp in Darwin, there are few parallels with the current squad’s preparation and that 2003. In a home tournament, those past Wallabies rode a wave of public support akin to what the Matildas just experienced. The dressing room walls were plastered with faxes and emails, everyone from the governor general to the six-year-old in kindergarten in remote Western Australia.
Of Jones’s current 33-man squad for France, 25 will be playing their first World Cup. There are 21 players with less than 20 Tests and 15 with less than 10. Jones has picked Will Skelton as captain while Michael Hooper and Quade Cooper didn’t make the World Cup squad at all. Dunning thinks Jones has a soft spot for “larrikins” – himself, Smith, Elton Flatley, Jeremy Paul. It may explain, in part, his preference for rugby league players. If there were grumbles in 2003 it was that the Wallabies back three in the World Cup final were former rugby league internationals Mat Rogers, Wendell Sailor and Lote Tuqiri. All three performed well and remain well liked by teammates. But Joe Roff played nine minutes off the bench while Matt Burke was in a suit in the stands.
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