Eddie Jones interested in Japan rugby coach job but says no offer yet: Reports
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Eddie Jones has said that Japanese rugby had "always been my passion".
PHOTO: AFP
TOKYO – Eddie Jones would “definitely be interested” in coaching Japan’s national rugby team but has yet to receive an offer, Japanese media quoted the former England and Australia boss as saying.
The 63-year-old Australian has been strongly linked with a return to the team he led from 2012 to 2015, one week after he quit as Wallabies coach
Speaking in Yokohama on Tuesday, Jones said he had not held any formal discussions with the Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU) but would welcome an approach.
“I’ve had no offer, let’s be clear,” said Jones, according to Kyodo News and other prominent local media.
“But if they came to me and said: ‘Are you interested in coaching them?’, I’d definitely be interested.”
Jones’ wife is Japanese and lives in the country. His mother is Japanese-American.
The Australian is reportedly the front runner on a JRFU list of candidates that also includes South African Frans Ludeke, who coached Kubota Spears to last season’s Japanese club title.
The 55-year-old is set to be interviewed later in November for the job, which previous coach Jamie Joseph left after Japan’s Rugby World Cup first-round exit.
Australian media reported that Jones had held an online interview with the JRFU while coaching the Wallabies at the Sept 8-Oct 28 World Cup, something which he has strenuously denied.
But now that he is out of a job, he also said that Japanese rugby had “always been my passion”.
“Japan can’t stay where they are because if they stay where they are, they’ll actually start to slide. So they’ve got to make a big push now,” he said.
Jones led Japan to a historic win over South Africa at the 2015 World Cup in England, in a match that became known as “The Brighton Miracle”. His success with the Brave Blossoms helped him become coach of England, who he took to the 2019 World Cup final and eventual defeat by South Africa, who retained their title in France.
He was fired by England last December
Jones was then hired by Australia in January
He insisted that he was denied the chance to reform Australian rugby, while saying that Japan also needs to make major changes.
“You’re going to have to be courageous and you’re going to have to do things differently,” he said.
“You can’t just go along and do what you’re doing now. So that’s the reason I would be interested.”
Separately, Bongi Mbonambi has labelled England as “unprofessional” after the South Africa hooker was cleared of allegations that he racially abused Tom Curry
World Rugby found “insufficient evidence” to back up Curry’s claim that he was called “a white c**t” by the Springboks player in South Africa’s victory in Paris in October.
Bongi Mbonambi was cleared of allegations that he racially abused Tom Curry in their World Cup semi-final.
PHOTO: AFP
Mbonambi said the incident arose because Curry failed to realise he was speaking Afrikaans, a common practice among the Springboks to ensure opponents do not understand their messages.
“I think it is a very sad thing when you live in a first world country (England), you think the rest of the world speaks English,” he told BBC Sport Africa on Tuesday.
“It was unprofessional on their part. They could have gone on a website and looked for an English dictionary and looked for the word in Afrikaans.
“People understood (in South Africa), but obviously their side was misunderstood.”
World Rugby stressed that Curry made the allegation in good faith and added there was no suggestion that it was “deliberately false or malicious”.
Both players have been subjected to online abuse since the alleged incident. AFP, REUTERS
