Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has again defended his non-selection of former captain Michael Hooper and veteran playmaker Quade Cooper, saying the duo was no longer “obsessed with winning” and that is why they were overlooked for Australia’s Rugby World Cup campaign in France.
Jones continues to be the subject of intense speculation across Australian rugby circles, with many expecting him to either walk away from his five-year deal or reach a mutual agreement with Rugby Australia to part ways. He continues to be linked with the vacant Japan job, too, while there are reports that RA’s failure to meet two contract clauses has Jones also moving towards an exit.
According to reports, one of Jones’ demands was that RA achieved private equity investment and the other was that the governing body move to a centralized system with its state unions, or as he put its “optimizes your top players.”
After fronting up to the media in Sydney last week, Jones then sat down for an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Fitzsimons, the 63-year-old standing by his decisions and sticking to the mantra that he had done what was in the best interests of Australian rugby.
That included leaving Hooper, Cooper and fellow playmaker Bernard Foley out of the 33-man squad that failed to reach the quarterfinals at the World Cup – the first time that had happened in Australian rugby history – because the trio no longer had winning at the forefront of their psyches.
“The situation reminded me of when Wayne Bennett let Wally Lewis go. No one could quite understand why, but Wally Lewis wasn’t a great role model for the rest of the team. And for those guys, I don’t think they were the right role models for the team going forward,” Jones told the Herald.
“Don’t get me wrong. They’re not bad guys. But you need guys – particularly when you’ve got a team like Australia has at the moment – you need guys who are obsessed with winning, obsessed with being good, and those three are past those stages.”
Pushed on Hooper’s omission in particular, Jones again wouldn’t be swayed from his decision.
“I stand by it, 100 per cent. He is a great guy but the timing is not right for him,” the Wallabies coach added.
Hooper was a part of the Stan Sport commentary team throughout the World Cup, the former Australia skipper working on multiple Wallabies games when it was clear he felt he could still have offered something to Jones’ group.
Australia fielded the youngest average age of any squad in France, a lack of experience viewed as a key factor when things started to go wrong in their shock loss to Fiji, so too again a week later when they were hammered 40-6 by Wales.
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Jones’ most recent comments should make for an interesting meeting between he and Hooper, with the duo set to link up with the Barbarians for the clash with Wales in Cardiff next week. Given Hooper was named as a Wallabies co-captain alongside James Slipper at the start of the Test season, Jones’ comments to the Herald suggest his impression of the No. 7 shifted dramatically over the following weeks.
The Barbarians game meanwhile looms as one of Hooper’s last forays in 15s rugby, with the veteran No. 7 having taken the first steps in his switch to the Australia sevens program as he chases an Olympic berth, coincidentally in France, next year.
Incoming All Blacks coach Scott Robertson will join Jones at the Barbarians, while Springboks No. 8 Duane Vermeulen, who is playing the Rugby World Cup final this weekend, is among the other invited players.
But it will be the first time Jones and Hooper have come face to face since the former Wallabies skipper was told of his World Cup omission via a phone call in mid-August.