Wallabies have time to become World Cup contenders in France, says coach Eddie Jones

Australia rugby coach Eddie Jones believes that his team can win the World Cup in 2023. PHOTO: REUTERS

MELBOURNE – Australia coach Eddie Jones is yet to finalise his staff or settle on his best squad, but he is convinced the Wallabies have more than enough time to transform themselves into Rugby World Cup winners by the time the tournament kicks off in France in September.

The team slumped to seventh in the rankings under former coach Dave Rennie, but Jones said they could emulate South Africa, who became world champions for a third time at the 2019 tournament in Japan after years of struggle.

“We’re seven and so we’ve got work to do to get to No. 1, because we want to be No. 1,” the 63-year-old Australian said on Monday.

“We understand what the gap is and that it’ll take the coaching staff and the players to work hard to fill the gap.

“And we saw South Africa in 2018, 2017. They were winning games at less than 40 per cent. But they went on to win the World Cup in 2019. So, in a short period of time, you could change the team remarkably. And that’s the job.”

With the World Cup starting on Sept 8, a number of jigsaw pieces have yet to fall into place for Jones, who still lacks an attack coach or an overall forwards coach on his staff to help engineer a Wallabies turnaround.

The former England coach said he hoped to announce one or two appointments in the coming days, but declined to elaborate on the candidates or the nature of the roles.

Australia start their international season against South Africa in Pretoria on July 8 before home tests against Argentina in Sydney and New Zealand in Melbourne.

Separately, Rugby Australia (RA) boss Andy Marinos resigned on Monday, saying it was time to move on after returning the organisation to profit.

The Zimbabwe-born 50-year-old was appointed chief executive in late 2020 after five years running the southern hemisphere governing body Sanzaar.

His departure comes a week after the governing body announced it had returned the business to profit for the first time in four years. Marinos was widely seen as instrumental in helping revive the once cash-strapped organisation, largely due to the pandemic.

“The foundations have been established and the business is now well prepared to test the market for private equity investment, making it the right time for me to move on,” he said.

“Importantly, I will leave with the knowledge that RA is in a stronger position than when I joined, and proud of what has been achieved in my tenure as CEO.” REUTERS, AFP

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