SYDNEY – A shortened Rugby Championship — to accommodate the World Cup — starts on Saturday with southern hemisphere teams honing their game plans ahead of the showpiece tournament in France.
AFP looks at how each team is tracking:
– Jones put to the test –
Wallabies coach Eddie Jones faces his first test since replacing the axed Dave Rennie against world champions South Africa in Pretoria.
The master tactician, renowned for his innovative thinking, has been charged with revitalising a struggling team to give them a shot at once again lifting the World Cup.
He has vowed to instill a gritty, and winning, mentality by making them more aggressive in attack while defending like “mongrel dogs”, what he calls “the Australian way”.
Adaptability has been another buzzword, with veterans Michael Hooper and James Slipper sharing the captaincy in an Australian first.
But history is not on Jones’s side in Pretoria, with Australia yet to win at Loftus Versfeld Stadium over seven games stretching ba
…. to be continued
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