Rugby Australia: Jones told us this week he’s staying
Wallabies coach Eddie Jones privately reassured Rugby Australia officials as late as Tuesday that he was committed to leading the country’s struggling national team, despite international reports of an imminent appointment as Japan’s next head coach.
Rugby Australia sources familiar with the talks, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Jones met chief executive Phil Waugh in Paris on Tuesday to reiterate that he remained committed to coaching the embattled Wallabies until their home World Cup in 2027.
Jones’ reassurances were made before a report appeared in Japanese sports newspaper Sponichi that said Japan Rugby Football Union president Masato Tsuchida had reached out to Jones during the northern spring.
Eddie Jones was still reassuring Rugby Australia officials he was committed to the national team as early as Tuesday. Getty
Rugby Australia on Thursday declined to comment on the report, reiterating the statement first made by Mr Waugh: “I take Eddie for his word, and he has told us there is nothing to it.”
Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan and Mr Waugh have repeatedly defended Jones after The Sydney Morning Herald revealed he was secretly interviewing for the top job in Japan in the weeks before Australia’s World Cup campaign.
“My understanding all along is that wherever he is in the world, Japan would take him back in some capacity in a heartbeat, so there is a standing offer there to take him,” Mr McLennan told The Telegraph last month. “We have asked him if he interviewed with Japan, and he has categorically denied it on a number of occasions, so we take him at his word.”
Jones, who has received heavy criticism for Australia’s disastrous World Cup performance, has publicly denied
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