It's safe to say that preparation for the Rugby World Cup hasn't exactly been plain sailing for Eddie Jones and Australia.
The Wallabies, finalists as recently as 2015, arguably enter the tournament as the weakest of the four major southern hemisphere nations, off the back of a woeful Rugby Championship performance.
Defeats in all three of their games, including a bitterly disappointing 31-point turnover against the All Blacks, have many questions being asked of this Australia team, as they prepare to travel to France for next month's Rugby World Cup.
Having Eddie Jones at the helm will always add another layer of publicity, and the Australian head coach is in the news once again after losing the rag with the negative line of questioning from home journalists ahead of their departure for France.
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Eddie Jones unhappy with line of questioning surrounding Australian team
When it comes to coaches with World Cup pedigree, there are very few better than Australian Eddie Jones.
Jones led his country to the 2003 World Cup final on home soil, before masterminding arguably the greatest upset in rugby history at the 2015 edition, when his Japan team beat South Africa in Brighton.
Reaching another final in 2019 was the pinnacle of Jones' time in charge of England, though he is yet to come out on the winning side of a World Cup final.
He will have a serious job on his hands if he is to even come close to replicating such success this year. Australia enter the World Cup ranked 8th in the world, and Jones himself has faced serious questions from ex-players and fans alike for the woeful performances put in by the Wallabies during the Rugby Championship.
As Australia prepared to depart for France this week, Eddie Jones held his final press conference with the national press on Thursday at Sydney International Airport - and lost the rag with the negativity from journalists.
Hilarious. pic.twitter.com/jLGi5g947n
— Andy Rowe (@AndyRoweOnline) August 17, 2023
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Jones grew increasingly frustrated with the continued line of questions from the Australian press, before launching into a rant attacking the supposed lack of support shown for the Wallabies:
I can't believe the level of negativity here boys.
Part of you blokes are problem, because you're so bloody negative about everything. Okay, we're going out to a World Cup, you think we can't win, you think the selection process is bad because the players can play. So, I apologise for that.
We'll go out there and we'll do our best boys. If you haven't got anything positive to say, don't ask, please.
I know you blokes think we can't do any good. So don't ask any questions boys. Just be the pessimist you are, keep Australian rugby where it's been. Complain about players that don't get selected, keep going about that, because it's fantastic, because we love it.
I can feel the negativity coming off - I've got to wash myself off, boys. It's just sticking to me.
As he departed, Jones shouted back to the gathering of journalists to say it was the "worst press conference I've ever had in world rugby."
Though it may be natural to expect some support from the national press, it's easy to understand why very few are feeling positive about Australia's chances in this Rugby World Cup, given their performances in recent games.
The only silver lining is that they have "lucked" their way into one of the easier groups on paper, with Wales (alongside them in Group C) the only major player ranked below Australia in the world rankings.
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