Wallabies in desperate need of overdue win

Australia coach Eddie Jones as under intense pressure as the Wallabies seek to avoid a record-equalling fourth successive Test…

Australia coach Eddie Jones as under intense pressure as the Wallabies seek to avoid a record-equalling fourth successive Test defeat in tomorrow's Tri-Nations showdown with South Africa.

Shockwaves from last weekend's 50-21 thumping at home to New Zealand are still rippling through the game Down Under, with the experts divided over who to blame.

Some point to captain George Gregan and what is perceived to be too slow a pass, others believe Jones is simply not up to the task.

The head of that school is former Wallaby coach Alan Jones, now an outspoken radio personality, who strongly believes his namesake has to take sole responsibility for what has been a disastrous season.

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"I simply think Eddie Jones is not up to the task and I don't think you have to be a rocket scientist to come to that conclusion," he said on radio 2GB. "The only way you can assess that is to look at the record, and the record is there."

He refers, of course, to Australia's successive defeats to England, South Africa and New Zealand.

It is 12 months and five matches since the Wallabies beat any of the world's leading rugby nations and time is running out for Jones to pull the pieces together in time for the World Cup.

Last year's meeting between Australia and South Africa in Perth was a feisty affair, with a flurry of flying fists and this week Joe van Niekerk stoked the fires by declaring that he was "just looking forward to getting stuck into a few Wallabies".

Jones' response was simply to say: "We don't play the game that way.

"The way the South Africans have been talking, there's some intent in their approach to the game. If you're talking that way, there's obviously something on your mind."