‘He wasn’t receptive’: Cooper lifts lid on Jones’ tenure

“Key individuals around Eddie lacked significant expertise. As players, we tried to buy into what he was preaching, as not doing so would paint us as a detriment. However, common sense was hard to ignore, and it was remarkable that Rugby Australia couldn’t see it,” he said.

“For instance, Jason Ryles, a rugby league prop, served as an attack coach for the Wallabies at a World Cup. How much did he truly know about rugby attack? That encapsulated the situation. Many rugby coaches could have excelled in that role and I really feel for those guys who were overlooked, especially those who have sacrificed so much just to be dismissed for a rugby league prop.”

Cooper also claimed that Jones was narrow-minded and unwilling to listen to the players’ ideas.

“We have a lot of really talented players with great rugby IP, and I certainly enjoyed some of the conversations we had. But at the end of the day, he wasn’t receptive to new ideas, which is why I found it hard to believe he questioned me, Hoops’, and Foles’ desire to win [publicly],” he said.

“Winning is based on how well you prepare and the ability to execute the small details. Those details, like the decision to opt for a rugby league prop as your rugby union attack coach, put everything into perspective, in my opinion.”

The two-time World Cup representative blasted Jones’ disloyalty after he was unveiled as the new head coach of Japan last week, less than a year into his five-year contract with Rugby Australia.

“It’s an interesting thing,” Cooper said.

“Coaches ask a lot of players. I sat in on meetings and the coaches asked players to show loyalty to the country. It’s quite a tough pill to swallow when you see some of the things that have transpired over the past few months.

“Players get one opportunity to play for Australia. I can’t change allegiances tomorrow if I want to. That’s an interesting aspect of being a coach. It’s basically a merry-go-round. I just feel for the players. It’s the players who always draw the short straw. There was a lot asked of the players and put to us about our commitment to Australia and the cause of the World Cup.”

Cooper also added to reports from the Herald that Jones had first interviewed with the Japanese Rugby Football Union days before the World Cup started.

Having played in Japan since 2019, Cooper insisted that the Japanese players knew Jones was staging talks.

“A lot of the Japanese players here said [of the initial reports], ‘Oh, this is quite old’. They all knew about it. They were like, ‘You guys didn’t know about it?’ We were like, ‘Nah, this is crazy, we’re just hearing about it’,” he said.

“It was only a few weeks earlier that I was in Wallabies camp.”