Eddie Jones has conceded there was “too much fighting” with the media over his “desperate” efforts for the Wallabies to succeed.
The veteran coach of two tenures (2001-2005 and 2023) made headlines for several fiery press conferences in which he targeted journalists.
Perhaps the most high-profile incident took place as Jones and the Wallabies left for their ill-fated Rugby World Cup campaign in France where they bombed out before knockouts.
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Jones said the attending journalists deserved “uppercuts” for being negative.
Speaking with RugbyPass, Jones said his relationship with the media in England and Australia was poles apart.
“I really enjoyed England. I enjoyed how desperate they were to get news,” said Jones.
“They all come in, there’s eight or 10 of them and they’ve all got their headline. One of the things I liked to try to do, I enjoyed the game of trying not to give them a headline and give them a different headline. I quite enjoyed that.
“Australia was… there was too much fighting there and that was my fault. I probably went too hard at them — but that was part of the deal, try and create some news about rugby.
“When I reflected, I probably didn’t have as much control as I would have liked in the way I handled things. It’s funny, you get to 63 and you think you should be able to do that.
“But it was like a job where I was so… and maybe it was desperate, desperate to do well for the country, that I layered that to overflow to the media.”
Jones said his predecessor Dave Rennie “did a good job” and expected his successor Joe Schmidt to rebuild the team.
He blamed a litany of issues for Australia’s worst Rugby World Cup performance, including the short lead-in time that he often labelled a “smash and grab” effort.
However, he wouldn’t change his approach if given the chance again.
“It was just too unstable, mate. We had changing personnel, change in leadership. We tried to change the way we played. Short run-up,” Jones explained.
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“If I had my time again, I would still probably do it the same. Because as the end of the day, sometimes you have to make changes for the place to be successful and I’ve got no doubt that Joe Schmidt will improve the team.
“I think there are some good young players there that’ll start to come through now. They’ve had a pretty tough experience. Sometimes the making of a good team is the disappointment of having a bad campaign.
“Sometimes that’s the thing that really drives you to be good, to be really good. The difference between being good and really good is so small but so finite as well. As a player, you have to make that decision yourself.”
The Wallabies will have their first Test against Wales in Sydney on July 6.