Wallabies coach Eddie Jones likes his struggling side’s chances of causing a Bledisloe Cup boilover against an All Blacks team he claims hasn’t been put under pressure in 2023.
On paper, the July 29 clash at the MCG shapes as a mismatch between 2-0 New Zealand and a winless Australia searching for confidence and identity in Jones’ second stint as coach.
“I’ve got the Kiwis coming up and obviously they’ve got out of the blocks pretty quickly,” Jones said at the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour launch in Brisbane on Wednesday.
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“Which is a bit different for them in a World Cup year. Usually they have a much more moderated start and buildup to the World Cup. But I think because of the change in the coach post the World Cup (Ian Foster to Scott Robertson), I think they’ve said, ‘Stuff this, we’re gonna go hard right from the first minute’, and so they haven’t been put under pressure yet and our job is to put them under pressure.”
The All Blacks were irresistible in opening up a big lead against the Springboks on Saturday before withstanding a ‘bomb squad’ comeback in the second half and kicking late for a 35-20 win in Auckland.
“Their first 20 minutes against South Africa was almost perfect rugby,” Jones said.
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“Every kick they won in the air, they were good on the gain line. Very smart about the way they played. So if we’re able to match that the first 20 minutes and put a bit of pressure on them, which they haven’t had this year, then, you know, funny things can happen.”
The Wallabies have only three Tests before the World Cup and will start heavy underdogs in all of them.
After the home and away Bledisloe Cup series they will meet world No.2 France in a warmup game.
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Jones told reporters that he could mount a confident World Cup campaign even if the Wallabies didn’t win a game beforehand.
“Certainly we’d like to have much better results. We’d like to have two wins, but that’s not the case, but that doesn’t mean we’re not learning for the World Cup.”
He admitted he was yet to see the required mental resilience from his players.
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“We need to develop that and like anything, you can develop good habits very quickly and you can develop bad habits very quickly.”
The Wallabies will name a revised squad on Thursday and prop Taniela Tupou and outside back Andrew Kellaway loom as strong options to boost the 23.
“You know, I quite fancy ourselves against New Zealand. They haven’t been put under pressure yet and I think we’ve got the ability to put them under some pressure,” Jones said.
“I don’t think we’ve got any right to be confident, mate. But what we can do is prepare really well, get out of the blocks, put them under pressure, which we will do.”
Jones also liked the MCG factor.
“It’s the only ground where we’ve got a positive advantage over New Zealand. So maybe that’ll be sticking at the back of their minds and maybe that might have a factor in the game. It’s a good narrative for us.”
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