NSW Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson is concerned Eddie Jones might have inadvertently robbed a generation of Australian rugby players of their attacking instincts during his five years in charge of the Wallabies.
Jones achieved much success as Test coach, guiding Australia to the 2001 Tri Nations title, Bledisloe Cup glory in 2002 and the 2003 World Cup final in Sydney.
But he did with a robotic outfit, instructing the Wallabies to play a regimented style of rugby that Gibson believed might have influenced a whole new era of coaches at grassroots level.
Gibson's Waratahs produced a dreadful handling performance in Sunday's Super Rugby loss to the Melbourne Rebels, leaving the former All Blacks star exasperated by some of the "rubbish" they served up in the first half in particular.
"And it's something that, here in NSW, we're wanting to investigate to make sure our pathways and our kids coming through are taught the skills that we think are necessary to play running rugby," Gibson said.
"It's a structural thing. The difficulty for us is, I think, the Eddie Jones era of playing A, B, C-certain type of rugby. That lack of decision making has had an effect on Australian rugby in the fact that it's very pervasive in the schooling system.
