After surviving yet another pressure-packed week of rugby coaching, Eddie Jones wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip.
England’s Australian mentor maintained his perfect Test record at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night with a 25-17 win to set up a winner-takes-all decider in Sydney.
Jones has won all seven of his internationals as a coach in Brisbane with both the Wallabies and England and the 62-year-old is also a former Queensland boss.
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“Forty eight thousand people, all full of drink that want to see their team win. When you turn them away it’s a great feeling,” Jones said.
“Suncorp brings that out because it’s an intense, close environment.
“It might be the scent from the (nearby XXXX) brewery that encourages people to get stuck into each other but I think that’s traditionally how a Suncorp game goes.”
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Jones loves playing the villain role and is notoriously combative in taking on the media and the opposition personally which relieves external pressure on his players.
“I was coming out from the coaches box, you know they’ve (Wallabies fans) all got their scarves on – when did Australians start wearing scarves – new-age isn’t it?
“They’re not so smart now. Before the game they’re coming up saying ‘you’re going to get belted tonight’ and (now) they’re a little bit quieter. So that’s good. I enjoy that.”
The hard-fought victory eased some pressure on Jones following the meek first Test loss in Perth and a dismal fifth-placed finish in this year’s Six Nations.
Jones led England to the 2019 Rugby World Cup final and has a glut of runs on the board but that doesn’t stop his mum from fretting.
“I love my mother ringing me up in the morning saying ‘are you going to get sacked? Are you going to get sacked? When do you have to move? Are you going to come back to Australia? Come back and live in Randwick’,” Jones said.
“I love that. My poor mother. But I don’t mind it because I have made the choice to take the job and that’s always going to happen because there’s an infatuation with sacking coaches now.”
Jones also revealed that Wallabies prop Taniela Tupou had provided Ellis Genge with extra motivation by talking pre-game about his plans to “smash” him.
“Certainly Genge was possibly a little bit annoyed about what Taniela Tupou said and he wanted to make a mark on the game,” Jones said.
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