Eddie Jones has weighed in on Australia’s attacking struggles in recent matches and believes that James O’Connor’s absence has been felt.
Additionally, he has explained why he thinks that Joseph Suaalii’s form has dipped, with the former rugby league star enduring a sluggish finish to the Rugby Championship, after a great start, while he was less impactful against Japan and England.
The Wallabies managed just one try in their 25-7 defeat to England at the weekend, with Harry Potter scoring against the run of play, sprinting from near his own try line after picking off a Fraser Dingwall pass.
This is despite the fact they had more attacking minutes (19.3) than England (15.5) and had 55% of possession.
The stats don’t provide pretty reading for Joe Schmidt’s team as they gained just 340 metres and made six clean breaks from their 130 carries, while England were much more efficient with their 94 carries and 509 metres.
Wallabies struggling to adapt
Ahead of the British and Irish Lions series, the Wallabies lost first-choice fly-half Noah Lolesio, and the injuries and setbacks have just continued in that role.
Tom Lynagh has followed Lolesio into the medical ward, while James O’Connor has been given time off after linking up with Leicester Tigers.
The setbacks led to Tane Edmed being called into the squad, with the Waratahs playmaker earning starts against Argentina, New Zealand, Japan and most recently England while coming off the bench during the Rugby Championship too.
Speaking on the Rugby Unity podcast, Jones theorised that the Wallabies’ attacking woes are not down to the skillset of Edmed but his confidence to call the plays.
“I think what’s happened is that a popular way to attack now, and teams use it at various times, is where they basically play attack both sides of the ruck and try to find spaces within a fairly tight defence line and then after they tighten the defence up, try to swing with numbers and get numerical advantage on the other side of the pitch,” he said.
“I think we’ve commented about how good James O’Connor was at making decisions around this, and they’ve definitely lost his expertise at being able to see when they could potentially get a numerical advantage.
“So the attack, over the last period of time, seems to have become more constricted and tighter. Maybe it’s Tane Edmed, he is a young guy who is finding his feet in international rugby, and he might see the space, but he might not be calling it at the moment.
“That’s one thing you find with younger players, like we had a couple of occasions in our game [Japan’s match versus South Africa] where players see it, but they don’t call it because again, they don’t have the confidence to call it yet, and Edmed might be going through a bit of that at the moment.”
Suaalii’s form
Commenting on the form of Suaalii, which he says has been negatively impacted in the absence of his regular centre partner, Len Ikitau.
Hunter Paisami has taken over the number 12 jersey in Ikitau’s absence, who has missed the last two games after linking up with PREM Rugby club Exeter Chiefs.
While Jones rates Paisami highly, he believes that Ikitau’s skillset better suits Suaalii’s.
“Suaalii hasn’t been at his best over the last few weeks, and he seems to be really struggling to find his game, and that’s not a coincidence because Len Ikitau has been out,” the Japan boss said.
“Suaalii and Ikitau balanced each other out. Ikitau could do a little bit of distributing, but some running, and because he is a left footer, he gave much more balance to the Australian team.
“Whereas Paisami is a fairly straight, abrasive player and a good player, I can’t recall seeing Australia go 10, 12, 13 in any sort of sense that it’s an attacking threat.”