The Wallabies’ complicated – and comedic – reunion with ‘uncle Eddie’

After an evening of well-meaning – but mostly dull – “this belongs to my whole team” acceptance speeches, Len Ikitau drew a laugh at Sydney Town Hall when claiming the John Eales medal at the Rugby Australia awards on Friday night.

In Exeter, where he has just begun a sabbatical season, Ikitau sent a video message and at the end of his spiel he wished the Wallabies well for the start of their spring tour, in Tokyo on Saturday. The star centre will rejoin the squad in November but will miss the game with Japan.

“Say hi to uncle Eddie for me,” Ikitau said with a grin.

Uncle Eddie is, of course, Eddie Jones – the coach of Japan and predecessor to incumbent Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt.

In a fixture announced at the start of 2025, likely arranged to repair a strained relationship between RA and the Japan Rugby Football Union, the Wallabies will meet the Japanese national side at the National Stadium.

It’ll be your standard Test match, but there’s also no escaping the spicy subtext: a reunion between the Wallabies and Jones. The origin of said strain.

The lowlights of Jones’ second tenure as Wallabies coach in 2023 don’t need an expansive recap.

After the sacking of Dave Rennie, Jones returned amid great fanfare, but a catastrophic season unfolded. After a winless build-up to the Rugby World Cup, Jones bizarrely dumped a large group of experienced players and took the Wallabies’ youngest and most inexperienced squad to a World Cup – which duly ended in disaster.

For the first time, Australia exited in the pool stages and making matters worse, Jones – who had a five-year contract with RA – was sprung doing a Zoom interview mid-tour with Japan about their head coach vacancy.

A few weeks later Jones cited broken funding promises and resigned as Wallabies coach, and no-one rushed to stop him. Jones was appointed coach of Japan 45 days later.

Fast-forward 22 months, and much water has passed under the bridge for the revitalised Wallabies. But not quite enough to wash away all the residual bitterness. Witness the wisecrack from Ikitau, the world-class centre who was inexplicably overlooked by Jones.

But as much as it would make good theatre for the Wallabies to be fired up and chasing retribution against Jones, the reality is … well, a bit more complicated – on several fronts.

For starters, most of Jones’ 2023 Rugby World Cup squad won’t be in Tokyo. Of the 33-man squad who went to France, there are 10 survivors in the Wallabies camp in Japan and in contention to play.

For various reasons, 14 of Jones’ World Cup squad have not played a Test since, and two others played one and two Tests respectively.

Some were injured, some moved countries or codes, and others just didn’t make the cut under Schmidt, who went through his own audition process. But the new coach promptly recalled many of the senior players cut by Jones and, indeed, Schmidt even built a side around them: Harry Wilson, Jake Gordon, Noah Lolesio, Ikitau and Tom Wright.

Another 14 new players in the Wallabies’ spring tour squad were blooded in 2024 or 2025.

“We’re all really excited to get to Japan,” Wilson said. “A lot of us haven’t played over there, and Japan are a really good opposition. We’re definitely not focusing on the fact that Eddie Jones is the coach. A bit of a reunion for a fair few of the boys, but we’re really excited to go over there and do a job.”

Beating Eddie would be nice though, wouldn’t it?

“It’d definitely be nice. You want to win every Test match, and I’m sure a few of the boys would definitely love it,” Wilson said. “But, as I said, we’re very focused on ourselves and making sure we go over there and do the job.”

Wilson was being diplomatic as skipper, and it must be said some Wallabies do credit Jones with giving them a first Test cap or for improving under him. But, privately, there is also no shortage of Wallabies who still shake their heads about the chaos and disappointment of 2023.

The complicating factor about the revenge narrative, though, is many of the aggrieved won’t even be squaring up with their old coach in Tokyo.

Ikitau is in England, and Lolesio and Wright have long-term injuries. Wilson may also find himself benched, given the Wallabies are playing five Tests in 30 days, and Schmidt has signalled he intends to rest players who’ve had big workloads over the winter.

“It would have been nice to play that Japan game, but I’m at Exeter now,” Ikitau told reporters on Friday night. “I’ve just come into camp with these boys, and for me it’s about earning their trust. So as much as it would have been nice to play against uncle Eddie, my full focus is Exeter right now.”

That strategy from Schmidt will see a batch of players come into the side who were also ignored for the 2023 World Cup and will take their chance to remind Jones of his mistake – players like Hunter Paisami, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Pete Samu and Filipo Daugunu.

But this is a group who are, in fact, likely more focused on proving something to Schmidt than to Jones, given they’ve mostly been on the Wallabies’ fringes this year.

In a strange twist, Carter Gordon has returned, and he qualifies in most categories. He was backed – and sacked – by Jones in 2023, and hasn’t played a Test since. But after a stint in league, he is now back in the Wallabies squad, and looking to rebuild his rugby career.

For his part, Schmidt said he hadn’t heard talk of the Wallabies being driven by wanting to beat Jones.

“It was before my time. I started 18 months ago, and in that 18 months none of the discussion has really been about what went previously,” he said.

“[The focus is on] an investment in their performance more than anything that they might be wanting to prove to another person.”