Wallabies coach Eddie Jones slams Australian rugby union’s highest-paid player Rory Arnold
Eddie Jones has dealt a brutal blow to Australia’s highest-paid rugby player, the burly lock Rory Arnold, when he announced his Wallabies squad for an upcoming training camp.
Arnold, despite drawing a whopping $1.5 million a year from Japanese club Hino Red Dolphins, isn’t actually playing at the moment after the club withdrew his team from the famed conservative league following allegations stemming from a wild night in Oita, on the island. from Kyushu.
Since it is a World Cup year, playing minutes are vital both for physical condition and for the team.
But rather than seek another deal, Arnold opted to stay in Tokyo, where the club is based, and cash his paycheck while keeping fit at the gym.
The 32-year-old has played 32 Tests for the Wallabies and has 128 caps in a top-flight career with French powerhouse Toulouse and the Brumbies; but it’s his 208cm, 120kg frame that’s particularly important for a traditionally small Australian pack.
Rory Arnold has been left out of Eddie Jones’s Wallabies squad for an upcoming camp, and the coach explains that he doesn’t pick guys who build trucks over play rugby.
Jones, pictured taking notes in the Super Round in Melbourne in the second round of the Super Rugby Pacific season,
Jones took a dim view of Arnold’s choice to remain in Tokyo, where the Hino trucking company, which owns the club, is based.
When it comes to Jones and World Cups, you can’t just pick potential, and he pulled out the metaphorical prod to goad Arnold into action.
‘I think he’s working on the factory line at Hino.’ Jones joked about Arnold’s absence from the team, which features seven foreign players who will join training camp via Zoom.
‘I think he’s making those trucks, because he’s not playing rugby at the moment. To be selected you have to play rugby, you have to play rugby, we don’t pick guys who make Hino trucks.’
Adding salt to Arnold’s wound is the fact that his twin brother Richie was called up to the team.
Jones reserved high praise for the official lock, in whom the Wallabies mentor is clearly heavily involved given that he met with the Toulouse manager to check on how he was traveling.
Jones might not have chosen Rory Arnold, but he chose his twin brother Richie, whom he lavished praise on as the cornerstone of the Toulouse pack.
‘He is [Richie Arnold] a tremendously tough player,’ he said in the team’s announcement.
‘Toulouse builds his pack around Richie Arnold. I went and met the Toulouse coach [Ugo Mola] and we had a talk about him and what he brings to his team and his development as a player.
“He is a very young player due to playing experience and training experience.
“So again, I feel like he’s one of those players that has a lot of development and a lot of growth.”
That would imply he was a young star ready to break out, but Richie Arnold is anything but, as the late-starter only made his Toulouse debut in the French 15 as a 27-year-old.
Since then, he has become the centerpiece of the Reds and Blacks’ group of forwards, and his twin brother may be rueting the day he left France for the money and bright lights of Tokyo.
A clear winner and a clear loser in What’s App family chat, but what other players suffered similar fortunes?
WINNERS
1 – Max Jorgensen
Max Jorgensen, pictured evading a tackle in the Waratahs’ loss to the Brumbies on Sunday, has been called up to his Wallabies first team at just 18 years old.
Waratah’s wunderkind Max Jorgensen is just 18, but his talents have kept Rugby Australia salivating for years, and Jones wasted no time in picking the youngster after a strong start to his Super Rugby career.
He will (hopefully) have a very long career as a generational backline utility talent, and has not been intimidated at any point in his debut season, underscored by the fact that he became the first Waratah to score a try. in each of his first matches.
He will complete more, but his speed and agility already come to the fore, and the fact that he is gutsy and tough as nails in defence, despite his lean frame, will allow him to make waves in Test rugby sooner rather than later.
2 – Suliasi Vunivalu
Suliasi Vunivalu hasn’t made a good start to the Super Rugby season with the Reds, but that hasn’t stopped Jones from picking him up.
Suliasi Vunivalu was a thrill machine in 111 games for the Melbourne Storm, but he has never quite realized his obvious potential since switching to the union in 2021. Jones, of course, is an unabashed fan of the league’s players, which has clearly worked in Vunivalu favor this time.
The Fijian flyer has been in very poor form to start the season and looks completely deprived of confidence for the Reds. Jones has admitted there are ‘gaps in his game’, but he is clearly willing to take a chance on someone who could make the difference at a World Cup, if he has a drastic change in form from him.
3 – Blake Schoupp
Blake Schoupp has made a rapid rise from Shute Shield to Super Rugby
Nuggety Brumbies mainstay Blake Schoupp earned his first national cap thanks to an impressive promotion from Shute Shield to Super Rugby after just five games for the ACT.
And Jones, who had a long career as Randwick’s hooker at Shute Shield, is a big fan of the ferocious physical education teacher.
‘He (Schoupp) is built like a brick shithouse, isn’t he? He’s perfectly built to be a prop, he scrums hard, he’s tough on the ball and he’s one of those guys who’s come the hard way, and he feels like with a chance we can get a little more out of him. ‘ Jones said during the team’s announcement.
LOSERS
1 – Noah Lolesio
Noah Lolesio has promised a lot for rugby fans but will have to fight his way through the Brumbies after missing out on selection.
23-year-old flyhalf Noah Lolesio has shown flashes of his talent and potential throughout his burgeoning career, but has been overlooked in favor of Carter Gordon and Tahs utility Ben Donaldson, in brilliant form, with veterans Quade Cooper and Bernard Foley. also in the squad as foreign players.
It’s not so much that he’s done anything particularly wrong at the Brumbies this season, but behind what is clearly Australia’s most dominant group, he hasn’t really taken games by the neck. He needs to show that tenacity and prove Jones wrong; because he certainly can
2-Corey Toole
Corey Toole goes for the game-winner against the Waratahs on Saturday, although it wasn’t enough to earn the Wallabies selection.
What a revelation Corey Toole, converted to Sevens, has been for the Wallabies! In form, it’s baffling to understand why Vunivalu was picked before him, and he’s one of the most exciting players to watch in the game right now.
Watching it fly across the wing is a sight to behold, and the pint-sized pocket rocket does not shy away from anything on defense. Saturday’s game-winner against the Waratahs and scoring (and setting up another) try on debut wasn’t enough to get him across the finish line.
Guess Toole is just a victim of backline depth. It’s hard to imagine we won’t see it in green and gold at some point.
3-Harry Wilson
Harry Wilson has been overlooked for Jones’ team, despite a good start to the season with Queensland.
Poor old Harry Wilson. The fullback breaks his guts every minute of every game he plays for the Wallabies and Reds. The latter have been incredibly poor at the start of the season, but Wilson still continues to shine, and the fact that he often agrees to play out of position for Australia must have hurt his chances.
He has yet to sign on the dotted line for Rugby Australia and the Reds. Has that counted against you?
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