Eddie Jones defended his return to Japan as coach on Thursday, assuring that he felt “no guilt” towards Australia, where he is suspected of having prepared this new project while he was still managing the Wallabies, authors of a historic rout at the World Cup in France. “I wish Australia the best,” and “I feel bad about the results, because I wanted to make a difference by coming back” to this country earlier this year, Jones, 63, said during a presentation press conference in Tokyo.
“But I don’t feel any guilt” in joining Japan, added the Australian, ensuring that the first contacts with a view to this appointment only took place at the beginning of December. Returning to the helm of the Wallabies last January, Eddie Jones ruled out any desire to leave in mid-October, in the wake of the unprecedented elimination of Australia in the group stage of the World Cup in France.
The Australian Federation, however, announced his resignation less than two weeks later, and Jones officially left his role in that country at the end of November. The announcement on Wednesday of his appointment as coach of Japan, a position he already held from 2012 to 2015, caused teeth in Oceania, where the media accused him of having played a double game.
Former All Blacks legend Sonny Bill Williams described the appointment as a “disgrace”. “It’s quite sad, isn’t it?” “My view in this whole story is that he lied… to the players, to the general public and to the Australian Federation,” he told Australian broadcaster Channel Nine. “The only thing I can control is what I did, and I’m perfectly comfortable with that,” he retorted. “If people think that (that he lied, editor’s note), that’s their opinion. I can not do anything about it”.
“I didn’t have an interview before the World Cup,” Eddie Jones defended to the press. “The recruitment agency asked me to share my experience about Japan and some people may have interpreted this as an interview. The first meeting I had with Japan took place in December and it was the only one I had. I feel very bad about the results (with the Wallabies). I wanted to go back and change (things with) Australia. I don’t feel guilty about this process at all.”
Eddie Jones, who took charge of Australia for the second time last January but has recorded just two wins and seven defeats in 2023, was asked if he should apologize to Australian fans, but said he gave them all he could. “It wasn’t enough. I had a plan to change Australian rugby. We were not able to do it, he confided. Rugby Australia was unable to support me so I decided to move on. I wish Australia the best…”
Having come close to two world titles with Australia and England, respectively in 2003 and 2019, Jones also marked his first visit to Japan with a historic victory in the World Cup against South Africa (34-32) during the 2015 edition. However, he remains on two failures: he was fired as coach of the XV de la Rose at the end of a 2022 season which saw England lose five of its 13 matches. Then, back at the head of the Wallabies, he experienced the biggest disappointment in the history of Australian rugby union during the World Cup in France.
