Eddie Jones makes Japan job claim as Ugo Monye slams Australian
Former England rugby coach Eddie Jones insists he is not set to return to the Japan job after walking out on Australia just nine months into a five-year contract.
Jones quit on Monday following a Rugby World Cup in which his Australia team failed to reach the knockout stage for the first time in the competition’s history.
The campaign was dogged by suggestions, which Jones repeatedly denied, that he had held talks with Japan about a second stint in charge of their national team.
“I’ve got no job to go to, no job offer. My commitment to Australian rugby has been 100 per cent. I did want to go on,” he told broadcaster Channel 9.
“Coaching a team is a bit like being in a marriage, you need commitment from both sides. I was committed to change the team.
“Rugby Australia at the moment cannot activate the changes, financial and political, to make real change in Australian rugby.
“I don’t like to be in projects where I don’t think they can really get to where they need to get to and I’ve made that decision.
“Rugby Australia probably doesn’t think that and that’s where the unity of our project is not in the place it needs to be.
“Sometimes you go in the bank and blow it up but you don’t come out with the money.”
Jones is half Japanese and previously coached the Brave Blossoms at the 2015 World Cup, where they caused a sensation by beating South Africa.
Former England wing turned broadcaster Ugo Monye said Jones’s decision to quit the Australia job after making drastic changes to the set-up “stinks”.
“You can’t come in and uproot a coaching staff, sack off some legends of the game, take a punt on some young kids, get booted from a World Cup and then say ‘cheerio’,” Monye said.
Jones was sacked by England chiefs last year, less than 12 months out from the World Cup, after a demoralising set of results in the autumn.
Monye added on the BBC Rugby Union Daily podcast: “In the last year, Eddie has lost the English rugby public and then the Australian rugby public in eight games. That’s a remarkable skill.”