'It's not foreign to me': New Wallaby coach eager to work with Eddie
SPOTLIGHT: Wallabies assistant coach Jason Ryles says his new boss Eddie Jones shares similar coaching philosophies to Craig Bellamy, who he played and worked under at the Melbourne Storm.
Ryles flew out of Sydney on Sunday to link up with the Wallabies in Paris ahead of the World Cup, which gets underway in France on September 8.
He got a call-up last week after the shock resignation of Brad Davis, although Ryles won’t be taking over as attack coach, instead helping implement the systems already put in place by Jones and former Wallabies attack guru Scott Wisemantel.
Ryles was previously employed by Jones in 2020 and worked during England’s end-of-year series but cut short his contract after six months due to coronavirus travel restrictions.
The 44-year-old felt it would be a smooth transition, given his history with Jones, who invited him to the final of the 2019 World Cup in Japan, when England fell to South Africa.
“It’s not foreign to me that’s for sure – Eddie has a way of doing things and has his beliefs and it’s been pretty successful for a long time,” Ryles told AAP.
“I’m excited to get over there and be behind the scenes again.”
After playing more than 200 games in the NRL including two seasons with the Storm in 2012-13, Ryles’s first foray into elite level coach came with Melbourne under Bellamy back in 2016.
He will re-join the Storm post World Cup, knocking back the St George Illawarra head coach role to again work under the Melbourne mentor.
Both Bellamy and Jones have a reputation as a fire-brand – with journalists in the Wallabies firing line last week – but Ryles said they had other qualities in common.
“They have different personalities but their work ethic and their insistence on doing the little things really well is similar,” he said.
“They work hard but their players work just as hard, which is something that they have in common.
“It’s their intensity at training – is probably the best way to describe it – they’re both strong believers in that.”
There are two former Storm wings in the Wallabies World Cup squad in Marika Koroibete and Suliasi Vunivalu who Ryles knew, while there’s another former NRL player in their ranks in defence coach Brett Hodgson.
“I played State of Origin with Hodgo [Hodgson] and then played against him often, and have had a bit to with him since we’ve been coaching so I’m really familiar with him,” he said.
Arriving in France on Friday, a group of Wallabies players made a visit to the Australian National Memorial in Villers-Bretonneux and laid a jersey for former Test playmaker William Tasker, who lost his life in France during World War I.
Vice-captain Tate McDermott said it was a “special day” before they started preparations for their warm-up game against France next Sunday.
“Just being at this place, the memorial, it puts a bit of perspective back around just how lucky we are to be here and do what we’re doing at the moment,” McDermott said.
“The biggest thing is an understanding of who we represent … we’re over here doing what we love but these guys were fighting for our freedom of everyone back home so we’re reaping the rewards of what they did.
“It’s emotional being somewhere so special to Australians all around the world.”
“When you have a defeat like that it’s about how do you look at the positives when you are reviewing it as a group.”
“There’s some easy fixes in terms of probably four or five of those tries are easy enough to stop and then all of a sudden there’s a different complexion on the game.
“We wanted to give everybody an opportunity and find out about players. A large amount of those would have learned a hell of a lot from that experience.”
