After the rout against Wales on Sunday, Wallabies supporters are in shock: barring a miracle, Australia will be eliminated in the group stage, for the first time since the creation of the World Cup in 1987.
Waking up is complicated this Monday, September 25 for rugby union fans in Australia. They witnessed their team’s debacle against Wales very early on (40-6 defeat) and saw their team threatened with a historic elimination from the Rugby World Cup, from the group stage. Beyond the score, what is even more worrying is the very poor play of the Wallabies, who failed to worry the Welsh.
>> Rugby World Cup: Wales first qualified for the quarters after their demonstration against Australia
Reactions follow one another in the press. David Campese, world champion in 1991 with Australia, describes this match as one of the performances “the weakest he had ever seen.” Morgan Turinui, player of the national team from 2003 to 2005, recalls that this defeat is quite simply the largest in the history of the country during a World Cup. For the former player and rugby columnist of the Sydney Morning Herald Peter FitzSimons, it is nothing more and nothing less “the most sickening defeat in Wallabies history”. Daily life The Australian point “the blackest day” and for the ABC channel website, “this humiliation must trigger a reset of Australian rugby”.
For these former players and for many observers, the team has never been in worse shape. It would now take a miracle for the Wallabies to advance to the rest of the competition. To qualify, they would have to beat Portugal with the offensive bonus and at the same time, Fiji take less than five points while they still have two matches to play against Georgia and Portugal, both weakest teams in Group C. In Australia, no one believes in it anymore, and we even think that they don’t deserve to go further.
Apologies from the coach, Eddie Jones
Australia coach Eddie Jones is singled out. First, for his choices. Indeed, he left aside elements who were certainly diminished, but very experienced, such as captain Michael Hooper. Its lack of reliability is also criticized. A few days before the start of the competition, Eddie Jones had a job interview to become the coach of the Japanese, once the 2023 World Cup is over, while his contract with Australia runs until 2027 and the next editing.
After the Wales match, Eddie Jones apologized to the fans for the team’s performance. “Our performance was not at the required level, I take full responsibility for that,” he advances, head bowed. He also denounced the poor state of rugby union in Australia: “It’s not an excuse, but it’s not just the Wallabies that need to improve, it’s the entire Australian rugby system that needs to do it today.”
It is true that today, rugby union attracts less and less, in favor of rugby union in particular, and that the level of the league has deteriorated considerably. Professional players prefer to head to European championships, such as France and the United Kingdom. A lack of investment which would be directly reflected today in the performances of the national team.