Gaffney in limbo after firing of Wallaby boss

THE ink was hardly dry on yesterday’s “Irish Examiner” piece on Alan Gaffney when Eddie Jones was fired as coach of the Australian rugby team.

In our interview, Gaffney, the former Munster coach, spoke in glowing terms of Jones’s capacity as a coach, insisting: “He’s demanding but you have to be like that. He doesn’t ask anyone to do what he doesn’t do himself. He has a good rugby brain. Virtually to a man, the players are supportive of him.”

Gaffney had been Jones’s assistant coach since last May. After they won their first four matches together, the rot set in, and their only victory in their nine outings since was over Ireland at Lansdowne Road last month.

Jones came in for some severe criticism in the Australian media and believed his situation was to be reviewed at a meeting next Friday. However, he telephoned Gaffney, who has spent the last week or so in Ireland, to inform him of his sacking in the early hours of yesterday morning.

“He is deeply hurt but has to move on,” said Gaffney.

“It appears he has been given no explanation although I suppose every coach is judged on his team’s results. For now, all Eddie’s staff, including myself, are being retained but it appears next Friday’s planned meeting will not take place and all will be reviewed in February. I fully understand that a new coach would want to bring in his own staff but we’ll just wait and see how things work out. Obviously, I’m very sorry for Eddie Jones. I consider him a very good coach and that he should have been kept in the job in the best interests of Australian rugby.”

ARU managing director Gary Flowers said earlier this week that “the performance review will not be a witch hunt” and one of Jones’s likeliest successors offered the opinion that to get rid of him now would be “a hospital pass.” However, Flowers declared in the aftermath of the sacking: “Professional rugby is a result-based game - one win in nine matches is far from satisfactory.”