How to Win Enemies & Alienate People

The man Eddie Jones is either a marvel or a Tasmanian Devil.

Born January 30, 1960 in Burnie, Tasmania, of a Japanese mother and an Australian father, Eddie Jones is a rugby union coach and former player.

He left the Queensland Reds after their worst position since the inception of the Super 12, was the Wallabies coach and is credited as being the brains behind the behind the success of the South African Springboks side, which he helped lead to a 2007 World Cup Victory in France with Jake White.

In the last couple of weeks Eddie Jones, now the director of rugby of Saracens, has passed comment and opinion, like a Gatling Gun, on no less than 6 separate rugby tournaments and teams and their various coaches and players.

Saracens are coming out to South Africa in January 2009 and will play the Stormers at Newlands on 24th January and then Boand on the 31st January which should be a good bench marker.

Now back to Eddie’s rants that make news paper headlines:

1. Jones advises Boks

2. Jones calls for age limit

3. Eddie Jones attacks ELV’s and IRB

4. Jones bemoans failure to tackle breakdowns in play

5. Eddie Jones: Borthwick the core choice for new England

6. Jones hits out at woeful England

7. Eddie has a few tips for England

8. Saracens’ Eddie Jones hits out at Northampton’s Dylan Hartley

9. Jones dismisses team’s $10m Giteau offer

10. England have no defence and can’t attack

The reason I mention this is that these inflammatory headlines have to be compared to Robbie Deans’ measured comments that are more statesmen like, because all this becomes the bonding interface between the coach and his players.

Jake White and Eddie Jones re-united in a sequel this week, after last year’s World Cup triumph when they teamed up to coach the Barbarians on the 3rd December. They lost this encounter with a 18-11 loss to Australia.

It is White’s first coaching role this year, while Jones is currently the Director of Rugby at Saracens. Saracens is 7th (out of 12 teams) on the English League table and he has asked Jake White to assist for a week in January and a week in February next year. On this you have to salute Jones’ loyalty to Jake White and keeping him in the loop of elite rugby.

The Barbarians assembled a squad resembling something close to a World 15 for the match against the Wallabies at Wembley on Wednesday. A team that on paper anyone would have said would put at least 30 points past the Wallabies after their loss to Wales.

John Smit led the team that included , Richie McCaw, Joe Rokocoko and Jerry Collins with Springboks John Smit, Schalk Burger, Jean de Villiers, Percy Montgomery, Bryan Habana, Bakkies Botha, Johan Muller, Nic Koster and Fourie du Preez.

IRB Player of the Year Shane Williams and former Australian halfback George Gregan were also in the squad. A Spookily impressive line up.

The fact that they were hastily thrown together outfit, the Barbarians had strike weapons in every position and the framework of the 2007 World Cup-winning South African side on which to build. These are all professionals and highly paid who should have been able to gel together in a snap.

For the young Australians, sent into battle by Robbie Deans, without such senior campaigners as Stirling Mortlock, Matt Giteau, Stephen Moore, Nathan Sharpe or Al Baxter, it was a daunting assignment and they came away with an 18-11 victory.

It confirmed that Robbie Deans is a powerhouse coach, who outsmarted and out thought White and Jones and receives unconditional, total and complete dedication and commitment from his Wallabies, be they the veterans from Stirling Mortlock to Matt Giteau.

Australia are deadly now and will be even deadlier in 2009.

The article below, from Wayne Smith of The Australian, demonstrates a brilliant piece of writing, but more than that shows how Robbie Deans has inspired and fuelled the Australian rugby fans fervour at becoming No.1 in the world again.

Article from: The Australian

Wallabies rookies defeat Barbarians

Wayne Smith | December 05, 2008

“THE last and least important fixture of Australia’s tour became arguably the most valuable after the Wallabies rookies rocked a star-studded Barbarians side at Wembley in a match that escalated from festival to ferocious.

Baa-Baas matches tend to be woolly affairs with the ball tossed around with carnival abandon, and from the outset yesterday it was clear Jake White’s virtual World XV intended to adhere to this tradition.

But this was no ordinary Barbarians outfit. The spine of the team was made up entirely of Springboks, nine of them, supplemented by Richie McCaw, Joe Rokocoko, Shane Williams and George Gregan.

So for all their protestations that they were a hastily thrown together outfit, the Barbarians not only had strike weapons in every position but also the framework of the World Cup-winning South African side on which to build.

For the young Wallabies, sent into battle without such senior campaigners as Stirling Mortlock, Matt Giteau, Stephen Moore, Nathan Sharpe or Al Baxter, it was a daunting assignment and they came away with an 18-11 victory.

Early on, the Barbarians were all cavalier charges and flashy flourishes. But whenever and wherever they moved the ball, they were bashed and monstered as the Wallabies unleashed their most brutal and sustained defensive effort of the tour.

“If we had given them a bit of rope, it could have been ugly,” explained Wallabies coach Robbie Deans. “The boys were conscious of that.”

Very quickly the Baa-Baas became conscious of that as well. How could they not be aware when every time they touched the ball, they were flung around like smash dummies at a testing plant.

Collectively, the switch was flicked. “Oh, so you want to play this like a Test match, do you?” Sheep’s clothing discarded, the Barbarians went back to being wolves again.

Yet no matter how many times Schalk Burger or Bakkies Botha or McCaw thundered at them, the Wallabies hurled them backwards. Easily the most mesmerising moment of this absorbing contest was when the All Blacks hard man Jerry Collins stoked up a full head of steam and charged at the Australians, only to be cut down in mid-stride by Tatafu Polota-Nau.

“I thought the intensity was as tough as any Test match,” Springboks and Baa-Baas captain John Smit said. World Cup-winning coach White conceded the match hadn’t followed his script. “Full credit to Australia,” he said. “They were outstanding. They were a young team and the way they stood up to all the physicality we chucked at them, they can take their hats off and be pleased with that.”

Deans was delighted, recognising what a significant step forward this performance was in the development of the team.

“It bodes well for the future,” he said. “Our performance wasn’t flawless by any stretch of the imagination. You could almost suggest for a stretch there we were trying to lose the game. But they found a way to win and that’s an art we’re working on.”

There were stand-out performances across the board, from Polota-Nau, Adam Ashley-Cooper at inside centre — a foreign position but one that might become more familiar to him — and, of course, man of the match George Smith, the Australia captain on the night.

But always the eye was drawn to the gold 15 jersey, worn with Energiser bunny zeal by James O’Connor, 18.

Many a senior international would have been daunted by what O’Connor faced yesterday — “three of the best wingers the world has seen for a decade” as Deans described Williams, Rokocoko and Bryan Habana — yet the teenager did everything but wink and blow kisses at them.

Yes, he made some mistakes and will want to fast-forward over his desperation kick off his own tryline that bobbled only 25m for Williams to use as his launch pad for the Barbarians’ only try, to Collins. For the most part, though, this was a performance that will live long in his memory and in the memories of those privileged enough to see it. Two years ago it was Francois Steyn who came to London as world rugby’s most dazzling whiz kid, but O’Connor easily “out-prodigied” the prodigy yesterday, even in the goalkicking stakes.

This was the Francois Steyn who landed the killer 45m penalty goal against England in last year’s World Cup final, yet up stepped O’Connor, the winner of a pre-match kick-off with Quade Cooper, to land three from three while Steyn blotted his copybook, missing two shots at penalty goal and three shots at drop goal.

For all his extraordinary confidence and dazzling footwork, O’Connor didn’t quite convince Baa-Bas assistant coach Eddie Jones that fullback is necessarily his position. But whatever position he ultimately will play, he should settle on it quickly and make it his own, Jones warned, unlike Steyn who has been messed around by being tried in so many backline positions he is in danger of losing his way.

It may be that O’Connor ends up at five-eighth, although Cooper showed enough to suggest he could evolve into Australia’s answer to Carlos Spencer, minus the recklessness.

Still, he did rough up Springboks halfback Fourie du Preez on the ground and take a beating among the sideline hoardings from Italian prop Federico Pucciariello for his troubles, so maybe there is a bit more attitude to young Cooper than he has shown thus far for Queensland.

No bad thing, that. No bad thing the ferocious attitude displayed by the entire Wallabies side yesterday.

After what they did to the multinationals, every major rugby country in the world will eye them very warily in the future.”

You just have to smile at this new found Australian pride and fighting talk, as it signals 2009 as the start of many on field battles that the Wallabies intend winning.

There is a solidarity, a focus and a purposeful goal in Australia, while in South Africa we are beset with deep divisions and acrimony.

Imagine just how much better South Africa could be if these deep divisions were set aside and the focus was on being the best at all levels, on and off the field?