Cheika v Jones: let the war of words begin
Eddie Jones versus Michael Cheika is being billed as ‘‘the battle of the big mouths’’ with the coaching rivalry set to dominate the lead-in to the juicy Rugby World Cup quarterfinal between England and Australia.
They square off on Saturday (8.15pm NZT) but already the testy relationship between the two mouthy coaches is hitting the headlines in the UK.
The Times described them as the ‘‘Rugby World Cup’s gobbiest coaches’’ with their personal history going back to their playing days at Sydney’s Randwick club and for New South Wales.
The Times noted that Cheika didn’t want to ‘‘get into an old boys’ spat . . . but could he resist?’’
They then ran a few gems from the highly opinionated Cheika that covered Jones bringing in NRL great Ricky Stuart for advice and also his typhoon predictions.
There was also a cutting line when Cheika was asked whether getting a win over England would be a special career
moment. Cheika insisted he did not see it like that. You ‘‘cherish’’ the good moments, he said. ‘‘You are not looking to make a movie or write a book,’’
he added, in reference to Jones, who has had the movie and is now doing a book.
It was a fair question considering Jones holds a 6-0
record against Cheika in tests between the two countries since he took over England following their 2015 World Cup disaster at home.
This was duly noted by The Guardian. In a piece looking at what England may have discovered about Australia at this World Cup, they went back to the old chestnut, declaring ‘‘the battle starts with Cheika’’.
‘‘It did not take long for Cheika to pull the pin out of the first verbal grenade and lob it in the direction of his old rival Jones,’’ The Guardian reported.
‘‘Speaking soon after the victory over Georgia he said: ‘I saw he was saying that that would be an advantage and the typhoon gods were smiling on him.
‘‘So I suppose they’d better win. They’ve had the best preparation, according to the coach, so they’d better go out there and win.
‘‘Since being appointed as England head coach, Jones has led his side to six consecutive victories over Cheika’s Wallabies, starting with a 3-0 series win in Australia in the summer of 2016. On that tour Jones came out on top in the verbal jousting as well and since then, the pair have rarely resisted the chance to go at it. It is unlikely they will change tack this week.’’
In reality Jones has been on his best behaviour in Japan. He hardly threw a barb at any opponent during pool play where England were business-like in getting three comfortable wins to head their group.
But that stakes are raised now.
It’s knockout rugby and few coaches have a better understanding of the pressures involved in this tournament than Jones who has coached Australia to the 2003 World Cup final, helped South Africa win the 2007 title and gained hero status while in charge of Japan during the 2015 tournament where they upset the Springboks, resulting in him getting that movie-star treatment.
Now he is in charge of England and the expectations are huge.
Cheika may have beaten him to the opening punch but expect Jones to get some verbal sparring in ahead of the opening bell.