England coach Eddie Jones has had a go at Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson and Super Rugby.
Jones was reacting to Gibson’s statement that it was Jones's influence while in charge of the Wallabies, between 2001 and 2005, that has caused the decline in attacking prowess of Australian rugby players.
‘I was never a development coach. I coached the Brumbies, I coached the Wallabies and I coached the Reds,’ Jones told the New Zealand Herald. 'I never went around preaching and telling coaches how to coach. I don't think a national coach ever has. That's a job for a technical director. He [Daryl Gibson] doesn't even know the difference between a national coach and a technical director.
‘So we get some guy coming in on the coat-tail of Cheik [Michael Cheika] and then tries to change his team and play like a Kiwi side and then blame a coach from 10 years ago? That is pretty red hot,’ Jones said.
‘We've seen it with Robbie Deans; we don't want Australian sides to play like New Zealand sides. That's the great thing Cheik's done with the Wallabies – he's got them playing like an Australian team, not copying a Kiwi side.
Jones added that the expanded Super Rugby tournament has been to the detriment of Australian rugby.
‘We [Australia] used to have three teams of which two used to be very competitive and one might struggle a little bit. Now you've got one team that's good, two teams that are struggling and two teams that don't even know what their name is.’
Jones's England will travel to face the Wallabies in a three-Test series in June.
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