If Eddie Jones’s young team can challenge the World Cup hosts, Australian rugby may just get the ‘historic reset’ it needs
The French invented the amuse-bouche and aperitif to prime the palate before a great feast. The Wallabies will be of similar service when they whet local appetites for the Rugby World Cup in the one-off warmup Test against host nation France on Monday.
The Stade de France clash is the fruit of a deal hatched over lunch between the RA chair, Hamish McLennan, and former French rugby boss and World Rugby vice-chair Bernard Laporte in 2021. On the menu in Saint Germaine that day was hare-in-hare-blood-gravy. But the rabbit in the headlights this weekend is Eddie Jones who needs to improve on a dismal 0-4 record since returning as head coach this year. Victory would also inject much needed belief into his youthful 33-man squad before the Wallabies’ “smash and grab” mission on rugby’s greatest prize begins on 10 September.
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