AUSTRALIA COACH EDDIE Jones insisted Saturday that his team can turn the corner by the time they meet the All Blacks in a fortnight after slumping to a second straight defeat of his reign.
The former England boss was hailed as the saviour of Australia when he was appointed in January to replace the axed Dave Rennie after the team lost nine of 13 internationals last season.
But it has been a rocky start to his second stint in the job, crashing 34-31 to Argentina on Saturday in Sydney on the back of a 43-12 thrashing by world champions South Africa at Pretoria last week.
They next meet a dangerous New Zealand — who toppled the Springboks 35-20 in Auckland on Saturday — at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before a return leg in Dunedin ahead of the September-October World Cup in France.
Jones admitted it was “a bad loss” but was adamant they can challenge the All Blacks and get themselves back on track.
“In 10 days we can be a completely different team, and that’s the aim,” he insisted.
“We tried to play a bit freer which involved a bit more decision making, but at the moment it’s not quite gelling.
“But we’ve got to accept there is going to be a little bit of pain.”
Woeful discipline was again a problem against Los Pumas with 14 penalties conceded, including one in the dying minutes that allowed Argentina to launch a final attack that ultimately won them the game.
“If you look at our squad at the moment, there are a number of guys coming back from long-term injuries, so we’re not where we should be,” said Jones.
“But that’s no excuse for today’s performance.
“It’s more about how can the team just be better decision makers around the ball and our ability to get off the line a bit harder.
“Again, we didn’t put enough pressure on them with our defence.”
Captain James Slipper admitted the poor discipline “really hurt us”.
“We’ve got to turn that around… there’s quite a few of us who have to look at those individual penalties and rectify it quickly,” he said.
“Performances like that, we won’t go far at the World Cup.”
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