{"id":336779,"date":"2023-10-06T14:10:28","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T14:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=336779"},"modified":"2023-10-06T15:00:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T15:00:49","slug":"blame-myself-eddie-reveals-killer-world-cup-regret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=336779","title":{"rendered":"'Blame myself': Eddie reveals killer World Cup regret"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\ufeffAINT-ETIENNE:<\/strong> After Taniela Tupou<\/a> had galloped around Friday's training at Stade Roger Baudras, he exclaimed "it's good to be back!"<\/p>\n

The cult hero prop's personality is infectious and it is impossible to not think what might have been if not for a horror injury double blow.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Instead of preparing for a Rugby World Cup<\/a> quarter-final, Tupou and Will Skelton's rehab work will be in vain if Fiji take care of business against Portugal on Monday (AEDT).<\/p>\n

Watch all the action from Rugby World Cup 2023 on the home of rugby, Stan Sport.<\/strong><\/em> Every match ad free, live and on demand in 4K UHD<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

After beating Georgia in their tournament opener, the Wallabies never recovered from the loss of prized forwards Tupou and Skelton, who suffered devastating training injuries in the build-up to the Fiji game.<\/p>\n

"The biggest loss we had in this tournament was losing Taniela and Will in one session and I blame myself for that. Just didn't get it right, the session," Wallabies coach Eddie Jones told a small group of journalists in Andrezieux-Boutheon.<\/p>\n

"So yeah, I would have changed that, definitely."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\ufeff<\/strong> Key prop in doubt for All Blacks RWC quarter-final<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:\ufeff<\/strong> 'Vulnerable' Wallabies coach addresses hecklers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:\ufeff<\/strong> Massive win fires All Blacks into RWC quarter-finals<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Eddie<\/p>\n

Tupou suffered a hamstring injury and Skelton a calf.<\/p>\n

Jones was asked what exactly happened.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"It's just, you never know with injuries, you never really know, but could we have done it a little bit differently? I keep thinking about that, to minimise the risk of injury. And there's just an order of training and the way you train. I'll hold my hand up, mate."<\/p>\n

NEW PODCAST! Michael Atkinson and Sam Worthington preview a thrilling final round of pool games to decide the quarter-finalists at the Rugby World Cup in France\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/rugby-world-cup-inside-line\/pray-for-portugal\/embed?in_playlist=podcast&style=Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

Wallabies captain Skelton then interjected to defend his coach as the fallout from a historic World Cup flop continued to be examined.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"In terms of that mate, if you look back on a week that we've had or that we've had in the past, you can look at anything," Skelton said.<\/p>\n

"If I had a half an hour more sleep, if I drank a litre more water. I think those things are, like you said, uncontrollable.<\/p>\n

\"Australia<\/p>\n

"Those things happen and that's rugby. Injuries happen during the week, in games, so there wasn't things to say that I wouldn't have got injured on the weekend against Fiji. It's unfortunate and I guess we've just got to move on. I think we're working hard to try and get better these next couple of days and work to that quarter-final."<\/p>\n

Indeed, Wide World of Sports can confirm the Wallabies have not thrown in the towel after watching a spirited training session.<\/p>\n

Portugal need to beat Fiji by eight points or more – and not allow them to score four tries – to let Australia in the back door.<\/p>\n

\"Question<\/p>\n

It almost certainly won't happen and Jones admits now that the dual injury setback was a death knell for a young Wallabies squad.<\/p>\n

He was asked if the injuries sent shockwaves through the team.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"Yeah, but we've got to be good enough to cope with that. That definitely was the case," Jones said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1710203339403649090?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"And with a younger team, that's always the case. But again, they're the challenges of being a good team, you know, the world's best teams cope with that, they get on with it and we're not quite there yet. And that's the challenge for us, to fill that gap to be able to cope with those situations. Anyone drops out we're right to go."<\/p>\n

The \ufeffsetbacks just kept coming in France with youngsters Max Jorgensen, Carter Gordon and Nick Frost all officially ruled out of the tournament with injuries.<\/p>\n

It continued a horror run that existed with predecessor Dave Rennie but Jones insisted his strength and conditioning team was "first class."\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

"If you look at the objective data at the moment, of our injury rate compared to previous Wallaby teams, I think it sits fairly favourable…<\/p>\n

"Look, I took over a program that was already in place, so I accept that and I followed that, I didn't have too many choices to change it.<\/p>\n

"Would we have done things differently? Probably but again, I'm not too worried about that because I couldn't control it. So we only worry about things we can control…<\/p>\n

\"Eddie<\/p>\n

"I don't sit there thinking, 'shit, I wish I would have done that.' I'm\u00a0not comfortable with the results but I'm comfortable with the way we've gone about this campaign."<\/p>\n

Jones picked Skelton as his surprise World Cup skipper but Dave Porecki ended up captaining the team in his absence.<\/p>\n

Skelton, 31, said he was not retiring from Test rugby and Jones believed the giant lock had plenty more to give in a gold jersey.<\/p>\n

\"Eddie<\/p>\n

"I think he's just starting and I have been so impressed by his humility, his hard work and the manner in which he leads the team.<\/p>\n

"There's no doubt there was a hole left in us when we lost Will – from the leadership point of view and play point of view.<\/p>\n

"I couldn't speak more highly of him… Will's shown the capability to be a long-time captain of Australia."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S\ufeffAINT-ETIENNE: After Taniela Tupou had galloped around Friday's training at Stade Roger Baudras, he exclaimed "it's good to be back!" The cult hero prop's personality […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":336781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336779"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=336779"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336786,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336779\/revisions\/336786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/336781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=336779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=336779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=336779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}