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Eddie Jones confirms interest in Japan coaching job
By AAP
Eddie Jones has given the strongest indication yet that he’s keen to take on the Japan coaching job for a second time, admitting he’s “definitely interested”.
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Jones departed the Australian post only nine months into his five-year deal after overseeing the Wallabies’ shambolic World Cup campaign, with the side failing to make the quarter-finals for the first time and him recording just two wins from nine Tests on his return.
Their France campaign was rocked early when Jones was forced to deny he had interviewed online for the Japan coaching vacancy and insisted he was fully committed to seeing Australia through to a home World Cup in 2027.
However he walked away from the role late last month, blaming Rugby Australia for not having the finances to usher through changes he believed were required for success.
Last week, while at the helm of the Barbarians invitational team against Wales, the 63-year-old confirmed he would soon return to coaching.
“A hundred per cent, hundred per cent …very shortly, very shortly,” he said.
Now in Japan on holiday with his wife, Jones has told local media he would jump at the chance to again coach the Brave Blossoms and said rugby in Japan had “always been like my passion”.
He’s still highly regarded in the country after coaching Japan to a historic victory over South Africa at the 2015 World Cup and holds a consulting position with heavyweights Suntory Sungoliath.
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Jones insisted he still didn’t have a job offer.
“I’ve had no offer, let’s be clear,” Jones told Kyodo News.
“If they (Japan) came to me and said are you interested in coaching them, I’d definitely be interested.”
Like Australian rugby, he said Japan needed an overhaul and urged their administrators to be “courageous” heading into a new four-year cycle.
“Japan can’t stay where they are because if they stay where they are, they’ll actually start to slide. So they’ve got to make a big push now,” the former England mentor said.
“You’re going to have to be courageous, and you’re going to have to do things differently. You can’t just go along and do what you’re doing now, so that’s the reason I would be interested.”
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Frans Ludeke, the South African coach of Japan Rugby League One champions Spears Funabashi Tokyo Bay, is also believed to be in the running for the national job.
The Japanese door never closes on Eddie. It never will.
Rugby Australia on the other hand is the endless disaster that never stops.
Why cant the likes of Eales, Kearns, Herbert, Farr-Jones - seriously intelligent, serious gravitas guys take a hold of this mess and straighten out. I know easier then said bit it seems McLennan maybe just abit too ambitious for RA.
Additionally.
RA’s plight is indicative of a much wider malaise in rugby. NZ, Aus, SA, UK/Europe all seem to be struggling with issues surrounding the game and the elephant in the room seems to be the CTE mess that will have no resolution. Physical contact sports will never shake this off, ever, this has an immediate impact on engagement.
Incidents like Cane’s binning at the showpiece event, the once every 4 year rugby dance, the grand final…and Barnes feels obligated to nail the Cane followed by the VAR reinforcement, with no mitigation, allowance and so on. Jessie Kriel was perfectly fine by the way, on the counter at the ABs v Boks game last year, Kriel was so badly KO’d in the first half, he began doing the Haka, and stayed on. No sour grapes BUT if rugby is evolving in this way then god help us.
“Never had a meeting” 🤮
I think he implied that the reason he resigned the Australia job was that they could not deliver on contractual commitments related to centralization, presumably things like player contracting, match preparation, pathways and academies etc, in addition to financial resources. For someone with not too many RWC cycles left in his career, and with a stated goal of establishing Australia as RWC winners and the #1 ranked side, it would be hard to remain committed to a project that he considered to be structurally doomed. Specifically if RA agreed to certain things as part of his employment agreement that they are no longer able to deliver on then it’s not hard to imagine him declining to continue.
Having said that, I don’t believe he is being honest in his references to Japan. Most likely he already knew by this summer that RA were struggling to deliver on their promises. Most likely he would take an initial call, not a formal interview, from any major team under those circumstances. If they did enquire about his interest in coaching Japan then he would most likely have told them that he likes the Australia job but that there is a chance it will not work out.
He has used his words carefully when asked about Japan. He always says that he “has not received an offer”, and then changes the subject. Everyone knows that receiving an offer happens late in the courting process. Not sure why the journalists don’t double click on that comment and ask him when last he talked to Japan.
It’s a fair bet that he is deep in discussions with them, and has been for a while. And it would be surprising if we didn’t get an announcement of him being the new Japan coach within a week or two.
This man never ceases to amaze me