What Eddie Jones said about England at first Wallabies media briefing

Eddie Jones opted at his first official media briefing as the Wallabies coach in Australia not to talk about England and the RFU’s gaffe in not tying him to a non-compete clause when they dismissed him in December.

The 63-year-old was sacked by Bill Sweeney on December 6 at Twickenham but rather than have him agree to an exit deal that would have prevented him from working with any of England’s 2023 Rugby World Cup rivals, there was nothing in the small print to limit Jones’ next move. Rugby Australia was delighted to discover this oversight and with Dave Rennie sacked, Jones committed to a five-year deal on January 16 just 41 days after his English Rugby HQ sacking.

That surprising development has now opened up the possibility of Jones being the Wallabies coach tasked with beating England in a World Cup quarter-final next October in Marseille – an intriguing prospect that the RFU could have avoided if their exit strategy for Jones wasn’t so loose.

England, though, wasn’t a topic Jones was keen to get involved in during his three-quarter-hour introductory media conference in Sydney on Tuesday. Asked for his perspective on having no non-compete clause in his exit from England, Jones said: “Look, England for me is done. I don’t have any want to talk about it and any care what happened. I loved it but it’s finished, mate.”

The same question was put to Hamish McLennan, the chairman of the ARU board of directors. He answered: “I said I was surprised there was no compete (clause) there. I’m glad there wasn’t and delighted where we ended up.”

Earlier in the session held at Matraville Sports High School, the school that Jones was a pupil at during the 1970s, he was asked if coaching Australia and getting one over England would give him any particular pleasure? “Not really, mate,” he deflected.

“The most important thing is for Australia to do well whoever they are playing next. England is a chapter that I enjoyed, loved it, but it’s closed and now we are just moving on to the next game which will be against South Africa. That is the only thing we are worried about, so I can’t give you any headline there, mate. I know what you’d like but I can’t give it to you.”

The only other England reference Jones made during the brief was his re-telling of the well-known story about his first meeting quip to James Haskell about how good was his finger strength and that he was just about hanging on in the squad after the 2015 World Cup failure.

What Jones instead readily engaged at his first formal appearance as the new Wallabies coach was his thirst for immediate success. “Our target is to win the World Cup,” he said straight off the bat when questions were thrown open to the floor following an introductory 15-minute set-piece that included a welcome home from Gary Ella.

“If we win the World Cup, it changes things for rugby in Australia so our target is to win the World Cup and then worry about what happens after. To win the World Cup, this talented group of players is going to have to work together to make a team that has a competitive edge over the rest of the world.

“If you look at world rugby at the moment, there are six teams not separated by a cigarette paper. They are so tight and the team that learns the most over the next nine months will be the team that lifts the William Webb Ellis trophy in Stade de France on October 28 at about 11pm. We intend that to be us and then from that kids will want to play rugby.”