Australia are away. They have their first victory of the season and points on the board in this 2023 World Cup. After easily accounting for Georgia 35-15 at Stade de France, Eddie Jones will be delighted with the potential of this performance. It is early days and far greater challenges lie ahead but his young side are starting to sprout wings.
With his 82% win record at World Cup tournaments and his mad genius riffs, Jones is Australia’s greatest weapon at this cup. The coach was jeered by sections of the 75,000 crowd when he appeared on the big screen – “Obviously I’m not popular,” Jones said with a laugh afterwards, “at least I’m consistently unpopular” – but here, his selections paid off. The surprise decision to drop Andrew Kellaway and bring in Ben Donaldson at full‑back brought 15 points from the boot (and another 10 from his two tries).
