Japan is welcome to Eddie Jones and his bald-faced cheek

Given the respect Australians accord coaches of their national teams, Eddie Jones’ duplicitous contempt for leading the Wallabies during the World Cup can now be seen as a betrayal of both the hope of a country and his own experience.

He is single-handedly responsible for one of the lowest moments in Australian sport. The Herald has been right across the train wreck from the moment Rugby Australia appointed him to replace sacked Wallabies coach Dave Rennie in January. Our coverage culminated in reporter Tom Decent’s extraordinary revelation in September that, on the eve of the Rugby World Cup, Jones had been secretly interviewed by Japanese rugby officials to be the head coach of their national rugby team.

Our campaign in France was shaping as a smoking ruin. Fiji had already stunned the Wallabies when Decent’s story appeared just before Australia went down in a record 40-6 loss to Wales. For his scoop, Decent was subjected to a particularly vicious online vitriol campaign.

Jones only added to the venom by declining to comment but then fudged and raged that there was no truth to the media report. Rugby Australia allowed the obfuscations to drift on for months, inflicting huge self damage.

Yet even as he was unveiled as the coach of the Brave Blossoms on Thursday, Jones stuck to the big lie that his first job interview was only last week. Then, stunningly, Jones and JRFU officials had the bald-faced cheek to admit to the Tokyo press conference that there, in fact, had been previous contact. “I was asked by the recruitment agency to share my experiences with them on Japan,” Jones said.

For a man who has previously coached both Australian and Japanese national teams, Jones is disingenuous in insisting a recruitment agency would only wish to talk to him about his views on Japan. It’s a deception worsened by his wilful ignorance about the potential to wreak havoc on the Wallabies’ World Cup campaign if, as it was, his double-dealing was exposed.

Jones’ reputation in Australia is now in tatters. He was paid to bring out the best in our national team but instead exposure of his flirtation with Japanese suitors during the World Cup can only have seriously undermined the confidence of the young Wallaby team in their coach. And we should not forget that, amid widespread criticism, it was Jones who insisted on youth over experience as he remoulded the team, so his betrayal of his young charges represents a huge breach of trust.

Further, the exposure of his selfish and calculated decision to put himself above the honour of coaching the Australian team forced him to quit less than 10 months into a five-year contract and has left the code up the creek in Australia.

Rugby has been floundering in recent times due to falling popularity courtesy of the disconnect between schoolboy rugby, club rugby and Super Rugby. And, unlike other football codes, Rugby Australia has been tardy to expand its brand and properly develop and fund women’s teams. The Sydney businessman Hamish McLennan was named chair of Rugby Australia in May 2020 in an attempt to turn the code’s fortunes and his big strategy was to appoint Jones as coach to develop a winning team. As his patron, it was inevitable that McLennan resigned.

Australian rugby fans can accept defeat but not disloyalty. Jones was dead to them as soon as the Herald revealed he had agreed to take part in a secret first round interview with JRFU officials on August 25 via Zoom. Good riddance.

The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.