0:57 Justin Langer joined the Eddie Jones Coaching Podcast this week
“‘You’ve suspended a few players, the game is in crisis, everyone hates your team and we’re going to give you one more little slap, and let the Poms beat you 5-0’.
“It was so hard, it was so tiring – we were getting smashed, but we’re better for it and we learnt great lessons.
“Just coming into the head coaching role, it’s given me hairs on my chest and skin thicker than a rhino, but I’m better for it.”
It was similar for Jones, who had to pick up the England team when he took over in 2015 following the group-stage exit at their home Rugby World Cup.
He was confident the players were not too far away from being able to compete with the rest of the top nations, but admitted he was wrong to think the mental scars from that tournament would not continue to linger.
“I’m an older version of Australian, so I tend to think things will be all right,” Jones said. “I thought things were all right and I made a mistake, and it only came out a couple of years later in big games where the cracks from 2015 came out.
“We had to get a sports psych in and had a couple of meetings before the World Cup…and it was a really good point for the team to move forward.
“If I had my time again, I would probably do it earlier, but you’ve always got to deal with those issues.”
Langer and Jones adopted a similar approach when they took on their current jobs, with the emphasis being on restoring public pride in the team in their respective nations.
They both agreed the key to that was identifying the individual and team behaviours which create the right culture in the squad.
“The differences are so small, but how you change that is the difficult part and, as Justin said, you’ve got to be really insistent on what are the correct behaviours,” Jones said. “What can we be really tough on? What can we be negotiable on? And get the right people in place.
“You’ve never coached until you’ve lost five games in a row, and that’s when you find out about yourself as a coach and your team.
“In a lot of ways, they’re the most enjoyable experiences even though you don’t like it at the time, but when you get through them you know you’ve done something good.”
Sourse: skysports.com
