{"id":275800,"date":"2025-11-10T16:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T16:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/275800\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T16:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T16:56:10","slug":"ex-wallabies-coach-on-carter-gordon-and-joseph-suaalii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/275800\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Wallabies coach on Carter Gordon and Joseph Suaalii"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eddie Jones has given a blunt assessment of Carter Gordon\u2019s difficult return to Test rugby, saying the young Wallabies fly-half \u201cwas targeted\u201d by Italy<\/a> and \u201cfound it difficult\u201d to cope with the pressure in Udine.<\/p>\n

Australia<\/a> lost to Gonzalo Quesada\u2019s Italy 26\u201319, the Azzurri claiming one of their biggest scalps in recent memory.<\/p>\n

Gordon recently returned to the fifteen-man code after a spell with the Gold Coast Titans in the NRL and has been thrown back into the deep end at 10 by head coach Joe Schmidt. <\/p>\n

Jones isn\u2019t convinced, yet at least. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough old day for him,\u201d Jones said on the Rugby Unity podcast. \u201cHe\u2019s a big kid and a very talented player, but that was a hard task for him. He played his first game back in rugby against Italy in Udine, in a great atmosphere, and I thought they targeted him and he found it difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe he\u2019ll come out of it with some confidence, but certainly I think the Italians targeted him and he found it difficult going.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former England<\/a> coach said Gordon\u2019s performance spoke to the challenge of developing young playmakers at Test level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a really hard task for him, first game back, against a side playing with that kind of energy,\u201d said Jones. \u201cYou learn a lot about young tens in those situations \u2013 how they react, how they recover, how they grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have an answer, but I\u2019ve got an opinion,\u201d Jones told his fellow podcasters when asked about his former side.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trying to play what we call small-pitch rugby \u2013 compress the defence, play through them, and then swing,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen James O\u2019Connor was at ten, his decision-making on when to swing was outstanding. Since he hasn\u2019t played they\u2019ve lacked that decision-making. You see the defence compressed but they don\u2019t swing with numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be brave as a ten,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to take on the line even when you\u2019re under pressure. He\u2019s a talented kid [Carter Gordon], but the challenge now is learning how to handle that pressure and keep the team moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones also questioned the balance in Australia\u2019s midfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Suaalii has been at his best in the last three or four Tests,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s missed having Ikitau there, because Paisami is a similar straight, hard runner. They\u2019ve lacked that little bit of deception that Ikitau brings. If Ikitau comes back and O\u2019Connor plays, they can get that fluency back.<\/p>\n

Jones was full of praise for Italy, describing the match as one of the most intense of the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really impressive game of rugby. The intensity of the contest was high from both teams and Italy have improved enormously under Quesada,\u201d he said. \u201cThey play a high-kicking game now, but they\u2019re still adventurous. They\u2019ve got two big, strong centres who can dent the line and stay on their feet long enough for the support to arrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the growing Wallabies\u2019 penalty count was less about discipline and more about emotion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s rarely just discipline. It\u2019s the pressure the opposition put on you, and it\u2019s also that emotional part \u2013 players getting frustrated they\u2019re not in the game and trying to force it. They overdo it at the breakdown, get penalised, and think, \u2018I\u2019ve got to do something again.\u2019 That can lead to double penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Jones has given a blunt assessment of Carter Gordon\u2019s difficult return to Test rugby, saying the young…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-275800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}