Rugby Union - by Craig Hill

FORMER Wallabies coach Eddie Jones yesterday accused John "Knuckles" Connolly of bungling the World Cup campaign. Jones said the decision to sack George Gregan as skipper and hand Stirling Mortlock the captaincy had backfired.

Delivering a brutal assessment of the Wallabies' demise, Jones said claims the scrum had made massive advances since his axing two years ago were shown to lack substance in Marseille on Sunday.

"It has improved, but not that much, and there were repercussions elsewhere," Jones said. "At the scrum and the breakdown you would give England 8/10 and Australia 4/10."

But Jones argued that the other key element in the defeat was the removal of Gregan as on-field general.

"It was a mistake not having George as captain," said Jones, now right-hand man to South African coach Jake White....hence the *latter day sinner...
"The Wallabies definitely lacked leadership in that game (12-10 loss to England). They never got together to work out what to do, which George was always good at.

"He's been criticised as a halfback in recent times. Some of the stuff was right, some of it wrong. But you could never criticise his captaincy."

Jones said his comments were not an attack on Mortlock.

"It's hard to captain from the No. 13 position, and I don't think he was very experienced in that situation at the weekend," he said. "Quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals at a World Cup are life and death.

"It's not your normal Test footy. The intensity exacerbates strengths and weaknesses. I don't think it was Stirling's fault. It was a matter of circumstance.

"I've coached George and I know he would have been cognisant of the fact he wasn't the captain. It showed out that he didn't want to overrule the bloke in charge."