Eddie Jones joked he won’t get the chance to coach Joseph Suaalii if he hasn’t won the Rugby World Cup or Bledisloe Cup by 2025.
But the Wallabies boss hailed Rugby Australia’s big money raid on the NRL as “fantastic” for the code and believed that it had brought “relevance” back to the game.
“We’re back competing as a major sport and that’s what it started, people now talking about rugby,” Jones told reporters after naming his first Wallabies squad on Sunday.
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“So we bought relevance and we’ve bought a highly skilled player. I’d be honoured if I get the opportunity to coach him in 2025. But as you know, a coach, if you don’t get the results, you’ve got to find another job. I’m not counting my chickens before they hatch.”
Jones’ boldest selection in a 33 man squad was that of 18-year-old Waratahs flyer Max Jorgensen, in his first season of Super Rugby.
“He’s got pace, mate. Big thing about Test rugby is having pace, particularly in the back three. He’s got pace,” Jones said.
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“He’s got a great instinctiveness about him. He’s got courage.
“He’s got all the attributes of being a very good Test player and he’s made a good start. And his challenge now is to keep improving. Everyone who was selected is in the World Cup plans…
“I don’t think it’s about age, it’s about whether they’re good enough… certainly at the moment, the answer to that is yes.”
Jorgensen was one of six uncapped players named in the squad for a three day camp on the Gold Coast this month.
Another notable rookie selection is Rebels playmaker Carter Gordon, who leads Stan Sport’s Australian Super Rugby Pacific player of the year race.
Alongside NSW’s Ben Donaldson, Gordon is one of only two specialist No.10s in the squad with Noah Lolesio and James O’Connor left out.
“I love his competitiveness… he’s got that feel of the game of when to flatten up and when to be a little bit deeper, which is a bit of a lost art,” Jones said of Gordon.
“He’s instinctively got that, he’s courageous. I really enjoyed his game yesterday, his side got absolutely pumped in the first half.
“At one stage you thought you were going to see the Rebels floating out on the Pacific Ocean, they were getting that pumped (in Suva).
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“But he hung in there, he missed a couple of tackles, hung in there, kept doing the simple things well and put himself on show. They’re the sort of players we like to see, they’re never beaten, he never thought his side was beaten, he just kept going and going.
“And ultimately that’s the side we want to produce for Australia, that’s the side people want to see.
“That they’re always fighting, always in the fight, never get beat, and to do that we need players who want to do that and he’s certainly got loads of that at the moment.”
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