Under-fire Jones ‘just getting on with the job’

WALLABIES coach Eddie Jones has deflected talk that his position is under threat ahead of tomorrow’s pivotal Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup Test with New Zealand in Sydney.

Jones said he felt under no added pressure despite Australia losing their last two Tests to South Africa.

The Wallabies’ Tri-Nations’ hopes are also on the line against the All Blacks.

Jones and his Wallabies have been feeling the heat since a disastrous South African tour when they lost both Tests and had reserve scrum-half Matt Henjak sent home early for partying at a nightclub before a game.

“I’m just getting on with the job,” said Jones yesterday. “You are always going to find that in modern sport now, that if you lose a game or lose two games they either want the coach to be sacked or the captain to be sacked, so you just have to absorb that pressure and get on with it.”

Jones was satisfied his team had done the work in training to regain their form for the year’s biggest rugby match against the All Blacks.

“We’ve done all our work, today’s a training free day and I’m going to try and improve my coaching (at a schools’ clinic) - obviously I need to,” he said with a smile. “So I’d better work pretty hard today.”

Jones said he was expecting a typical fast free-flowing match after New Zealand named Mils Muliaina, Joe Rokocoko and Rico Gear as their back three.

“There’s a deliberate philosophy for both teams that they want to score tries,” said Jones.

“Traditionally games in Sydney at Telstra Stadium are nice open affairs where the ball is moved around. I think with a positive attitude from both teams, a positive attitude from the referee then we are going to get rugby which is about scoring more points than the opposition.”

Meanwhile, the Springboks have laughed off claims by a former Super 12’s rugby coach that their line-out ace Victor Matfield had been using a steel plate in his armguard.

After the team touched down in Perth ahead of next week’s Tri-Nations match, coach Jake White dismissed the suggestion as “laughable” and “ridiculous.”

Former Sharks Super 12 coach Kevin Putt reportedly made the claim on New Zealand television in the wake of the All Blacks’ loss to South Africa in Cape Town on Saturday.

During the match New Zealand scrum-half Byron Kelleher was concussed in a Matfield tackle.

Putt claimed Springbok captain John Smit had told him of Matfield’s “steel protector.”

White said the claim was too far-fetched to be a distraction to his side. “It’s laughable someone could even think international sports people would try those sort of hoaxes.

“A lot of guys play with braces on their arms, like Gareth Thomas and Stephen Larkham. I think it’s just media or some guy just throwing something and waiting for a reaction.”

He pointed out that it was Matfield’s shoulder, not his arm that had hit Kelleher on the chin.