Look, it doesn’t always have to be about Eddie Jones. We’re fully aware of that. We know that Australia’s progress at this World Cup will ultimately depend on the 23 players who take the field, and that occasionally the laser focus on their Escher painting of a coach obscures the more subtle development and progress of this team. But then there are times when Jones simply impinges, when he stamps his footprints on a game, writes himself into the plot to the point where he may as well be its author.
This was Australia’s first win in six attempts under his tenure, a bold if not quite a flawless statement of principles, and perhaps the best evidence yet that Jones’s ideas are beginning to take, that Australia can convert their moments of promise into points on the board. It was a little ragged in the second half, and Georgia missed several opportunities to make the game as close as their respective world rankings of No 9 and No 11 might have suggested.
