London: Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has labelled a cartoon published in The Australian newspaper depicting Eddie Jones as a clown as "poor form".
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
After England's captain's run on Friday, Jones opted to speak to the media, but the cartoon had not emerged until after his press conference.
Cheika knows a thing or two about clowns this year. He took great offence at a cartoon of him dressed up as a clown that ran in the New Zealand Herald on the Saturday morning before the third Bledisloe Cup match in Auckland.
Some said Cheika reacted too sensitively to the cartoon, notably former Wallaby great Glen Ella, but the Wallabies boss stood up for Jones for a change when he was informed about the image.
Asked if he thought the cartoon was funny, Cheika replied: "I don't think that's funny. I think that's poor form myself."
It was a cartoon that quickly pricked the interest of English journalists, as a number of websites picked up on it and ran subsequent stories on their websites.
The artwork will continue to fuel Jones' narrative that the Australian media have been "disrespectful" to England.
On the eve of Australia's clash with England, the Wallabies' last Test of 2016, Cheika said the week had been a lot of fun but insisted the sideshow of verbal barbs was over.
"From my point of view, it's concentrating on the match now, it's right in our sights," Cheika said. "All those sideline things, it's a bit of a giggle and everything like that but the real focus behind the scenes is making sure that we've got the right tactics. We're ready physically and our team is in a good space to play rugby. It's all a bit of a laugh but the real focus is there."
Jones was more interested in talking about the game but made a note that Cheika had bought out his machine gun since the England series when he was a little more reserved compared to his more senior coaching opponent.
"This has been a normal week for us," Jones said. "We did our press conference on Saturday and spoke about the next game. I made some comments that were justified and Michael has decided to get the machine gun out. That's his choice.
"Everyone makes a choice in life; what they say and how they behave. If he wants to behave like that, that's entirely up to him and we're comfortable the way we've behaved this week. We're comfortable with the way we present for rugby. I think rugby's a respectful game and we represent all the clubs, all the kids playing rugby, supporters, we represent all of those and we want to behave in a respectful way."
