Wallabies coach Eddie Jones admits his infamous airport spray was partly designed to drum up interest in his struggling team ahead of the Rugby World Cup in France.
Jones also said he was trying to protect his young players from the so-called "negative" questions from journalists in what he described as the "worst press conference ever."
The fiery departure presser at Sydney Airport, in which he told reporters to give themselves "uppercuts," made headlines around the world.
Watch the 2023 Rugby World Cup on the home of rugby, Stan Sport. All matches streaming ad free, live and on demand
"You know, sometimes you've got to have a bit of fun mate," Jones told Ben Fordham Live on Thursday.
"But there was a serious part to it. You know, we've got a young team here. We're trying to find our way and the journalists, all they wanted to concentrate on was on old conversations that weren't even true."
Jones was cranky at questions from media about his bombshell decision to axe Michael Hooper and Quade Cooper from the squad.
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He told Fordham he had no interest in apologising for his behaviour and conceded it was partly to "fire up" interest.
"Well, that's possibly one thing. And also we've got to look after our team. We've got to look after a young group of players and we want them to feel like there's people behind them."
Jones said he fell asleep straight away after boarding the flight, joking he was "possibly" exhausted from the epic tirade.
"Look, I don't ever have any regrets, mate. I try to just be as honest as I can be, honest with my feelings and emotions and that's how I felt at that time."
The Wallabies are 0-5 under Jones after he dramatically took the reins from Dave Rennie in January.
Australia has slumped to an equal worst-ever world ranking of ninth ahead of their World Cup opener against Georgia on September 10 (AEST).
Understandably, there is an air of negativity surrounding their chances in France.
Fordham asked Jones whether getting bagged added "fuel to the fire."
"Well, everyone's entitled to their opinion," Jones said.
https://twitter.com/StanSportRugby/status/1694560161191641387?s=20"And I'll give you an example last night. I was having dinner in Paris and a French guy comes up to me and he says, 'I love the way France play now.'
"I said 'why?' and he said 'because they don't kick anymore, you know, they're back to their attacking rugby.'
"And the fact is that in world rugby now, the highest kicking team in the world is France, right? They kick more than any other team and what they're really good at is their counter attacking.
"So people have perceptions, they have opinions and what you've got to deal with is fact and and the fact is we haven't won a game.
"So that's one fact. But are we improving?
"And the bottom line is we are improving. Now, we've got to improve quickly, I understand that. And we will."
https://twitter.com/StanSportRugby/status/1697045195391701447?s=20Jones said a lack of consistency was destroying their chances of winning games.
"And that comes from a bit of, a bit of mental toughness. It comes from the team fighting together in difficult situations and it comes from our capacity to repeat skill under pressure...
"I can tell you we're training at the absolute optimum we can and we'll get to the World Cup and we'll be in great condition."
The Wallabies have now moved from Paris to their World Cup base of Saint-Etienne, near Lyon.
"We'll set our campaign off in the right style and then we'll get better each week and we'll get to the quarter-final. We'll see how we go from there," Jones said.
Australia was thrashed 41-17 by World Cup favourites France in their final warmup Test on Monday (AEST).
https://twitter.com/StanSportRugby/status/1696341903363776991?s=20"Our best moments were better than France, but our worst moments were far worse than France and it's all about consistency and doing the simple things well.
"At the moment we don't have the capacity to do that but we're slowly building...
"We've now got five weeks before we need to play a game where you decide whether you stay or you go home."
Wallabies coach Eddie Jones admits his infamous airport spray was partly designed to drum up interest in his struggling team ahead of the Rugby World Cup in France.
Jones also said he was trying to protect his young players from the so-called "negative" questions from journalists in what he described as the "worst press conference ever."
The fiery departure presser at Sydney Airport, in which he told reporters to give themselves "uppercuts," made headlines around the world.
Watch the 2023 Rugby World Cup on the home of rugby, Stan Sport. All matches streaming ad free, live and on demand
"You know, sometimes you've got to have a bit of fun mate," Jones told Ben Fordham Live on Thursday.
"But there was a serious part to it. You know, we've got a young team here. We're trying to find our way and the journalists, all they wanted to concentrate on was on old conversations that weren't even true."
Jones was cranky at questions from media about his bombshell decision to axe Michael Hooper and Quade Cooper from the squad.
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READ MORE: Slater's telling response to stinging Souths allegation
READ MORE: Shock first for Crows veteran in 16th season
He told Fordham he had no interest in apologising for his behaviour and conceded it was partly to "fire up" interest.
"Well, that's possibly one thing. And also we've got to look after our team. We've got to look after a young group of players and we want them to feel like there's people behind them."
Jones said he fell asleep straight away after boarding the flight, joking he was "possibly" exhausted from the epic tirade.
"Look, I don't ever have any regrets, mate. I try to just be as honest as I can be, honest with my feelings and emotions and that's how I felt at that time."
The Wallabies are 0-5 under Jones after he dramatically took the reins from Dave Rennie in January.
Australia has slumped to an equal worst-ever world ranking of ninth ahead of their World Cup opener against Georgia on September 10 (AEST).
Understandably, there is an air of negativity surrounding their chances in France.
Fordham asked Jones whether getting bagged added "fuel to the fire."
"Well, everyone's entitled to their opinion," Jones said.
https://twitter.com/StanSportRugby/status/1694560161191641387?s=20"And I'll give you an example last night. I was having dinner in Paris and a French guy comes up to me and he says, 'I love the way France play now.'
"I said 'why?' and he said 'because they don't kick anymore, you know, they're back to their attacking rugby.'
"And the fact is that in world rugby now, the highest kicking team in the world is France, right? They kick more than any other team and what they're really good at is their counter attacking.
"So people have perceptions, they have opinions and what you've got to deal with is fact and and the fact is we haven't won a game.
"So that's one fact. But are we improving?
"And the bottom line is we are improving. Now, we've got to improve quickly, I understand that. And we will."
https://twitter.com/StanSportRugby/status/1697045195391701447?s=20Jones said a lack of consistency was destroying their chances of winning games.
"And that comes from a bit of, a bit of mental toughness. It comes from the team fighting together in difficult situations and it comes from our capacity to repeat skill under pressure...
"I can tell you we're training at the absolute optimum we can and we'll get to the World Cup and we'll be in great condition."
The Wallabies have now moved from Paris to their World Cup base of Saint-Etienne, near Lyon.
"We'll set our campaign off in the right style and then we'll get better each week and we'll get to the quarter-final. We'll see how we go from there," Jones said.
Australia was thrashed 41-17 by World Cup favourites France in their final warmup Test on Monday (AEST).
https://twitter.com/StanSportRugby/status/1696341903363776991?s=20"Our best moments were better than France, but our worst moments were far worse than France and it's all about consistency and doing the simple things well.
"At the moment we don't have the capacity to do that but we're slowly building...
"We've now got five weeks before we need to play a game where you decide whether you stay or you go home."
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