Eddie Jones era officially over as Rugby Australia accepts resignation

Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh has admitted Australian rugby is “financially challenged” and said the organisation had negotiated a “sensible outcome” with outgoing head coach Eddie Jones.

Waugh admitted the Wallabies performances at the World Cup were not good enough, describing them as “bitterly disappointing”, and said a review would take place imminently.

“I think there’s a lot of good things happening across the game, whereas the Wallabies’ performance at the World Cup was as low as I’ve seen in my time,” Waugh said.

Waugh also wished the departing Jones well, saying he thought that the coach’s behaviour had been “admirable” in his final weeks.

Waugh said he was happy with the settlement between Jones and RA.

“We’ve got a deed of release with Eddie and the reason why we have taken some time to get to our announcement out this morning is because we were working through that deed of release,” Waugh said.

“I think I’ve been fairly transparent around the fact that Rugby Australia has ended up in a very good situation financially through the separation.”

Waugh disagreed with Jones’ comments in an interview with the this masthead’s Peter FitzSimons about Wallabies veterans Bernard Foley, Quade Cooper and Michael Hooper not being good role models for the team, saying it was a “completely unfair comment.”

“Across Michael Hooper, Quade Cooper, Bernard Foley, there’s 280 to 300 Test matches between those three,” Waugh said.

“They’ve all put their body on the line over a long period of time and are role models to not just their peers, but [for] young boys and girls coming through the system. So I think it’s an absolutely unfair comment towards those players given what they’ve contrib