Rugby: Eddie Jones in talks to leave Australia but hits back at Japan claims

Eddie Jones was named head coach of Australia for the second time only nine months ago. Photo / AP

Eddie Jones has written to Rugby Australia to end his ill-fated second spell in charge but has strenuously denied claims he has lined up the Japan job.

Jones’s legal representatives wrote to RA chairman Hamish McLennan and chief executive officer Phil Waugh this week before he left Australia to help coach the Barbarians for their game against Wales next Saturday in Cardiff.

The letter, first reported by the Sydney Morning Herald and since confirmed to Telegraph Sport, has sparked further talk Jones could take the vacant job at Japan. Reports have suggested Jones is set for a second interview with the Japan Rugby Football Union in November. In an interview on Friday with the Sydney Morning Herald, Jones said he would be in Japan next month with his wife on holiday, but strongly denied that he would be leaving the Wallabies.

“I’m so p----- off with the situation now,” Jones said. “I’m really p----- off with what has happened.

“Look, I take responsibility for the bad results. But I don’t take responsibility for 20 years of decline of Australian rugby. And that’s what’s trying to be pinned on me.

“There’s no named source for these stories, so there’s no credibility about the story to start with. Secondly, the president of Japan Rugby happens to be a very close associate of mine. Every time I go to Japan, I have coffee with him. We talk about rugby. Have I met a Japanese representative? Yes. But I have done that for 30 years.”

Jones was named head coach of Australia for the second time only nine months ago, signing a five-year contract. Still, his time in charge so far has been disastrous with the Wallabies crashing out of the Rugby World Cup in the pool stages for the first time after taking a youthful squad to France and losing to Fiji and Wales.

The former England head coach has continually been linked with a return to coach Japan following Jamie Joseph’s departure, with Jones denying during the Rugby World Cup that he had conducted a Zoom interview for the role back in September.

Jones in the same interview discussed his decision to not take experienced players such as Quade Cooper and Michael Hooper to the World Cup, with the Australia coach saying he did not think “they were the right role models for the team going forward”, explaining that he needed players “obsessed with winning, obsessed with being good”.

When pressed that calling Hooper not a great role model was harsh, Jones replied: “I stand by it, 100 per cent. He is a great guy but the timing is not right for him.” In an interesting twist, Hooper is set to play for the Barbarians coached by Jones next week.

A full independent review of Australia’s disastrous World Cup is still yet to take place but a number of assistant coaches have already left the setup, including Jason Ryles, Brett Hodgson, Dan Palmer, Neil Hatley, Pierre-Henry Broncan and Berrick Barnes, with general manager Chris Webb reportedly set to follow.