Jones left in limbo as Australia win and earn stay of execution at World Cup

01 October 2023 , 20:13

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Staying alive: But Jones still needs mother of all favours from Portugal to avoid becoming first Aussie coach not to survive pool stage (Image: Getty Images)

Eddie Jones started this World Cup cycle challenging his team to be the greatest to ever play the game and ended it struggling to put away a band of part-timers.

Thrashed by Wales, embarrassed by Fiji, Australia needed a timely yellow card to get past Portugal. For all the good it does them and their embattled boss.

Barring a miracle the Wallabies will still fail to make the knockout stages for the first time, with Fiji needing just a losing bonus point against the winless Portuguese to take their place against England in the quarter-finals.

Worse still, Jones and his players have to hang around for the longest week of their lives, powerless to influence their fate, as Fiji are allocated the very last match of the pool stages.

“We’re still alive,” Jones said and factually he is right. But having to find solace in that shows how far his sights have been lowered since declaring his intention in 2020 to coach the ‘greatest team that ever played’.

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“We now have three days off, maybe I’ll take some Kava to the Fiji camp,” he joked. “Maybe that might work.”

Jones left in limbo as Australia win and earn stay of execution at World Cup

Fraser McReight with try which keeps Aussies alive in World Cup for at least another week (Getty Images)

It is not a laughing matter for Australia who for 15 minutes were headed for a place worse than rugby hell as opponents, led by Lisbon dentist Tomas Appleton, had all four sides of the ground chanting their name.

Jones had been roundly booed when introduced and could only watch in horror as Jeronimo Portela fizzed a peach of a pass for Pedro Bettencourt to score in the corner.

Samuel Marques converted from the touchline, Portugal restarted and when they immediately won a turnover the few Aussie fans still believing in Operation Eddie threw their hands up in despair.

Portugal took game to Jones' Wallabies from start to finish, winning thousands of new fans (AFP via Getty Images)

But just as followers back home reached for the off button Bettencourt went high on Izaia Perese, his shoulder making contact with the jaw of his opposite number, and the Europeans were down to 14.

Yards from the site of David Beckham’s infamous red card against Argentina which cost England so dear at the 1998 World Cup, another game was transformed in a single moment.

He was off for only 10 minutes but it was long enough for Richard Arnold, David Porecki and Angus Bell to score in quick succession. The centre’s return restored parity but it was too late.

David Beckham is red carded at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard during 1998 World Cup (Mark Leech/Getty Images)

With half an hour to go the Aussies had their bonus point, Fraser McReight dotting down unopposed.

There wasn’t much celebration. It condemns them to another week here, seven days of their life they will never get back.

Portugal responded with a try by Mike Tadjer which was a chalked off and one from Rafael Simoes which stood. Even Marika Koroibete’s late score could not steal their thunder.