Eddie Jones and Michael Cheika spat rumbles on ahead of England’s showdown with Australia
The weekend’s meeting at Twickenham in the final test of the year with the former teammates trading blows ahead of kick-off
England coach Eddie Jones and Australia counterpart Michael Cheika continued their war of words ahead of this weekend’s test at Twickenham.
Jones lit the blue touch paper immediately after England’s 27-14 win over Argentina last weekend by accusing Australia of scrummaging illegally.
Cheika, who played alongside Jones at Sydney club Randwick, responded to his compatriot’s comments by saying England prop Dan Cole had been scrummaging illegally for his entire career.
He also suggested Jones, the Wallabies’ coach when they lost the 2003 World Cup final to England, was “tarnishing” his legacy in his native Australia because of the “vitriol” he’d displayed during England’s 3-0 series win Down Under in June.
Watch: Eddie Jones interview
#ENGvAUS | "We'll still have a cold beer after the game if he wants to come and have a chat." Eddie on the scrum, Dan Cole & Michael Cheika: pic.twitter.com/Fd1D4xpAvU— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) December 1, 2016
Jones, however, again insisted that England had been shown a lack of respect in Australia by a television commercial from host broadcaster Fox Sports that mocked their chances of winning and a bizarre question containing a crude sexual reference from former Wallaby Stephen Hoiles, now a Fox pundit, at a post-match news conference.