Sir Clive Woodward and Eddie Jones duelled in the 2003 World Cup final, and the former England coach says his old rival should be focused on winning the next Test, not the next World Cup.
As the England coach who masterminded one of Australian rugby’s most agonising moments, Clive Woodward’s history with the Wallabies – and rivalry with Eddie Jones – is well known.
“I got on really well with Eddie – when he arrived in England, I was his cheerleader and was a big fan,” Woodward told this masthead. Jones was hired and after early indications of stability, he later elected to discard many of the players from the Rennie era and selected the most inexperienced Wallabies’ squad for a World Cup ever. In an interview with the, Jones admitted for the first time he has since wondered if that was the right button to push.
“You are coaching the team and if you get beaten by 50 points, that’s where you are today. I think it is a cop-out. The moment you talk about a development team, you’re not going to win, so why are you are even in the tournament? You should be competing, so you should be sending the best team you have today. If you start saying you’re developing for the future, it’s the wrong thing to do and it’s the wrong thing for the country.
“Well, what I would say is on the ’98 tour, I promise you, I picked my strongest team,” Woodward replied. “We got smashed but I couldn’t take the top 20 or 30 players, for various reasons, being rested and so on. I didn’t want to take a development team. But on that day, I picked my strongest team. We got what we deserved.”on the eve of the World Cup, Woodward said his major question about it was the impact on his coaching focus.
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