The
Wallabies returned late last night with a defiant Eddie Jones digging in to try
to keep his job as coach.

“I’m very keen to continue. I’ve never discussed any other
possibility,” Jones said. “I feel although we’ve had a tough
period, and certainly I take responsibility for all the results that have happened
over the last period of time, I’m keen to sit down and have a chat to the board
and will take it from there.”

Most tellingly, Jones said he had the
support of the team for his position and that seems to be the core of the defence
he’s building: “I feel in this period of time it’s very easy for a side to implode
when you’ve had such bad results, but what we’ve managed to do is to stick
together and have faith in what we’re doing and they know that there are some
good times around the corner for us.”

Three Wallabies – Latham, Cannon and
Tuqiri – have already gone public to support for their coach, but that support
might already be somewhat discounted before the inquiry led by Rod
Macqueen even starts. Indeed, it could be part of the problem.

I hear Macqueen thinks Jones’ major
fault is that he is too close to his players to be fully effective as a coach. That
closeness, bred in the Brumbies days, obviously is reciprocated. Jones’ old team mate Mark Ella holds
out some hope for the coach in The Australian, but it’s heavily qualified by the need to change the way he does his job.

“At the
end of the day, Eddie has probably suffered at the hands of his own coaching
style,” Ella said. “But if he could be a little more open-minded and
get certain individuals involved in assisting him, then I can see no reason why
we can’t achieve what Eddie is saying we can.”

That nod towards Jones inability to take
advice or delegate would seem to make the suggestion impossible. The only recent Wallabies coach to go
without having to be pushed was Rod Macqueen. It seems he’s going to keep that
title.