Japan head coach Eddie Jones has admitted that taking the Wallabies job eight months before the 2023 Rugby World Cup was a mistake he made because he was still hurting from his England sacking.
Jones was speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast alongside former England wing Jonny May, in the week his Japan side face England at Twickenham.
The Australian was sacked by England in December 2022 after seven years in charge and was named Wallabies head coach the following month. Australia went out of the 2023 World Cup at the pool stage, and Jones left the role soon after.
‘It always comes to an end’
Asked whether the end of his England tenure hurt, Jones did not hide from it.
“Oh, initially, yeah. Most things don’t end well, mate, do they?” he said. “Like marriages, relationships, like it always comes to an end.
“So when you do get the sack, it’s always painful, mate. And yeah, it hurts. But I think one of the things you got to do is just move on. And I’ve been lucky enough to just be able to move on.
“The mistake I made was take the Australian job so soon. Eight months before the World Cup was stupid.”
Two offers
Jones revealed he had a choice of jobs after the 2023 tournament, but Rugby Australia wanted him in place straight away.
“There was offer to coach post the World Cup, right? And I had two offers post the World Cup to coach two teams and one was Australia,” he explained.
“But then they came and said, ‘No, we want you to start now. We want you to take it now.’ And my gut feeling was this is stupid. Eight months, I can’t change a team in eight months.
“And the reality is you get five days before you fly to South Africa for the first Test. So you got no preparation time, right? And then you’re into the pre-warm-up game. So you don’t have any time to really change the team.
“But because I was still thinking of England, I probably took the job and it was a mistake. I always have to be busy and always want to keep working.”
Jones did not say which other team had made him an offer.
‘You’ve got to reflect’
The 66-year-old said the lesson applied to anyone dealing with disappointment.
“Whenever you’ve had a disappointment, the most important thing – it’s like being a player or a coach or anyone – you’ve got to reflect and then make a decision after that,” he continued.
“As soon as you go into something else, which I did with Australia, you probably haven’t reflected as much as you should.”
May, who played under Jones for England throughout his tenure, backed his former coach’s view on how careers end.
“If you look at people’s careers, okay, in rugby… who gets to finish their career walking off the pitch healthy, winning a World Cup final?” May said. “You’re talking millions of people play rugby and there’s a handful that can walk off with that.”
Jones now leads Japan, who play England at Twickenham on Saturday.
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