MELBOURNE : Australia boss Eddie Jones on Thursday confirmed attack coach Brad Davis had quit his staff in the leadup to the World Cup while launching a broadside at media he said had dragged the nation’s rugby down with “negativity”.
Davis, who held coaching roles at English clubs Bath, Ospreys and London Irish, was named on Jones’s staff in May and departs after four successive test defeats with the Wallabies this season.
Jones told reporters there was a “potential candidate” ready to replace Davis as the Wallabies prepared to board a flight to France from Sydney.
Asked whether it was Davis’s decision to stand down, Jones said: “Yeah, we had a discussion.”
He said he had approached former attack coach Scott Wisemantel, who resigned from the Wallabies in January, less than two weeks before Jones took over Australia.
However, Wisemantel, who worked under Jones at England, was unavailable.
Jones lost patience with questions about his World Cup squad named last week and the manner of his communications with long-time captain Michael Hooper and flyhalf Quade Cooper, both of whom were shock omissions.
Jones said Cooper had not returned his call.
“I think he’s very upset, mate,” he added, before launching a tirade at reporters at the airport.
“I know you blokes think we can’t do anything (at the World Cup), so don’t ask any questions, boys,” he said, becoming sarcastic.
“Just be the pessimists you are. Keep Australian rugby where it’s been, keep it where it’s been.
“Complain about players that don’t get selected. Keep doing about that because it’s fantastic, we love it.”
Australia, ranked eighth in the world, are winless under Jones in his second stint in charge of the Wallabies, with back-to-back defeats against New Zealand following losses to Argentina and South Africa.
Rugby pundits have given them little chance of winning a third World Cup in France.
Jones, however, said he was “more confident” than ever about Australia’s prospects after a training camp in the tropical north of the country.
“I think we’ve got the right squad now, I think we’ve got the right balance of energy and enthusiasm, we’re ready to go,” he said.
“None of you guys think we can do any good, so that’s all right. The challenge is for us as a group to show you we can, show ourselves we can.”
