Australia captain Will Skelton believes hypothesis has been “knocked on the head” linking Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones with Japan.
A newspaper report revealed simply hours earlier than kick-off of Australia’s Rugby World Cup conflict in opposition to Wales claimed that Jones had been interviewed for the Japan job final month.
Skelton, although, stated: “I believe it’s one thing that has been knocked on the pinnacle there.
“Eddie has denied it with us. We have full belief in him additionally. I don’t assume it was a distraction main into the sport.
“I don’t should (ask Jones straight). I heard the press convention final evening. I belief in there what he says – he’s a person of his phrase.
“At the second we’re in a World Cup in France, so we’re positively targeted on this. What occurs after that’s out of our management.”
Australia’s report 40-6 loss to Wales has left them on the point of pool-stage elimination for the primary time in World Cup historical past.
They have one Pool C recreation left in opposition to Portugal, however the final result of that’s more likely to be irrelevant with Fiji agency favourites to affix Wales within the last-eight.
Asked why he believes Jones remains to be the best coach to guide Australia, Skelton added: “I believe his long-term imaginative and prescient and what he desires Australian rugby to be again to, I believe that may be a constructive.
“The means he’s across the group. You see within the media he has his persona, however if you see him one-to-one, in entrance of the team, how he speaks, how he directs, the boys observe him and I do as effectively.
“He is a improbable coach with a large rugby IQ. We are studying each day after we are working with him.”
Skelton missed the Wales conflict attributable to damage, and he admits the result’s set to harm for a very long time.
“We came back to the hotel last night after Eddie debriefed the team, we got the players together, we connected up, we had a chat together,” Skelton stated.
“It is sort of one thing that you’ve got to let sit. The boys won’t grieve, however it can sting for a very long time for us.
“We clearly not solely let ourselves down, however we let all our followers and our households again house down.
“It was most likely our greatest week of preparation, and that’s the irritating factor, that it didn’t switch on to the sphere.
“You have gotten to provide credit score to Wales. They squeezed us, they put strain on our ball-carrying. They got here with a game-plan to squeeze us at set-pieces, and their defence was superior.
“It takes a day or two emotionally to get again after a loss like that with a lot on the road. It remains to be fairly uncooked.”
