Speaking on the Rugby Unity podcast, Jones said that, speaking from experience at his time at the ACT Brumbies, you have to be careful making big calls like that based on anonymous end-of-season reviews.
Eddie Jones: “Any disgruntled player now, they can take it into that survey … You’ve got to be careful about these things, particularly anonymous surveys.” Photo / Photosport
“Every team now, generally speaking, does an anonymous team survey at the end of the season. Any disgruntled player now, they can take it into that survey,” Jones said.
“At the Brumbies, I was a young coach coming through, and they did a survey in the first year where we came 10th. We were terrible, and we didn’t do anything to change what had been done before; we basically ran with the model that was there, which had been successful.
“Next year, we changed it to train much harder, had a different approach to the game, players became a lot more accountable, we were more demanding of them.
“I remember the survey came back and everything was s***, but we came fifth and that was on the way to becoming champions. You’ve got to be careful about these things, particularly anonymous surveys.
“I’m sure the high-performance team that looked at it from a New Zealand point of view looked at it very thoroughly and looked at all of that, but you do have to be careful on the surface of what you get back from surveys like that.”
There has been no timeline placed on how soon NZR would want to make an appointment, but with the All Blacks set to tour South Africa this year, a decision sooner rather than later would likely be preferred.
Jamie Joseph is currently the leading candidate, but he’s set to coach the Highlanders in the upcoming Super Rugby Pacific season, with their first pre-season game scheduled for January 30. However, across the Tasman, new Wallabies coach Les Kiss will also remain as Queensland Reds coach this season before replacing Joe Schmidt in the role.
Jones feels NZR needed to provide more clarity on their decision to part ways with Robertson.
“The implication is that the senior players didn’t trust the coaching team … based on? What didn’t they trust them on?” Jones said.
“We don’t actually know the detail. They tell you everything else, but they don’t tell you the crucial point,” Jones said.
“If it’s not based on results – which it isn’t – and it’s about senior players not trusting the coaching group, then what exactly didn’t they trust? There’s been no mention of that. Was it selection? Was it the captaincy? Was it the way they were playing or training? Was it conversations or stories that were told? What was it?
“I’ve been in a season review myself where I made one comment to a player he didn’t like – that can happen – and that suddenly became a question of whether the coaching was up to standard.
“For me, that’s a key issue that needs to be discussed.”
Jones did rule out any speculation he would put his hand up for the role, saying: “I don’t think I’m a candidate, so let’s not go there.”
Ben Francis is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.