Eddie Jones (rugby union)
Date of birth | 30 January 1960 | ||
---|---|---|---|
Place of birth | Burnie, Tasmania, Australia | ||
School | Matraville Sports High School | ||
Rugby union career | |||
Playing career | |||
Position | Hooker | ||
Professional / senior clubs | |||
Years | Club / team | Caps | (points) |
Randwick | |||
Provincial/State sides | |||
Years | Club / team | Caps | (points) |
1987–1989 | New South Wales | 12 | (0) |
Coaching career | |||
Years | Club / team | ||
1994 1995–1996 1996 1997 1998–2001 2001–2005 2006 2007 2007 2007–2009 2009–2012 2012–2015 2015– |
Randwick Tokai University Japan (Assistant) Suntory Sungoliath Brumbies Australia Saracens Consultant Reds South Africa (Assistant) Saracens Suntory Sungoliath Japan England |
Eddie Jones (born 30 January 1960) is an Australian rugby union coach and former player. He is the current head coach of the England national rugby union team. He has previously coached the Australian national team during the 2003 Rugby World Cup and also coached the Japanese national team for three years leading up to the 2015 Rugby World Cup. He was born in Burnie, Tasmania, to a Japanese American mother and an Australian father.
Playing career
Jones playing career began at Matraville Sports High School.[1] He played as a hooker for Randwick and New South Wales but was kept out of the Australia side by Tom Lawton and then was usurped by young hooker Phil Kearns at domestic level, and Kearns went onto to become one of Australia's most successful hookers. Jones played against the British & Irish Lions for New South Wales B in 1989.[2] After playing for New South Wales B against the 1989 touring Lions, he ended his career playing rugby to focus on his career as a teacher and school principal.[3] He also made 3 appearances for Leicester during the 1991/92 season in England. He retired to concentrate on a career as a teacher and school principal.[4]
Coaching career
Early coaching career
In 1994 Eddie Jones gave up his career as a teacher and school principal to coach his former club Randwick. Then he went to Japan where he had brief stints coaching Tokai University, Japan as assistant coach and Suntory Sungoliath.
ACT Brumbies
Jones returned to Australia in 1998 to coach the ACT Brumbies. Jones had a disappointing first season only finishing 10th in the Super 12 his first season in charge; he has since said he was "way out of his depth" in his first season.[5]
However Jones went onto lead the Brumbies into the beginning of their best period of their history, in 2000 the Brumbies were runners up losing the final to the Crusaders, but in 2001 coached them to their first title and the first ever team from outside New Zealand to win the tournament. Notably whilst with the Brumbies, it was Jones who was credited with discovering George Smith whilst at a trial for a Rugby League team the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, Smith went on to become one of Australia's greatest players.
Australia
In 2001, he coached Australia A to a win over the touring British & Irish Lions. This success led to him getting appointed as head coach of the Australian national rugby union team, the Wallabies after Rod Macqueen retired. Under Jones, Australia won the 2001 Tri Nations. Australia entered their home World Cup in 2003 as third favourites behind New Zealand and England. They managed to upset the All Blacks in the semi final before losing to England in the final in extra time through a last minute drop goal.
After the World Cup, Jones was awarded a contract to lead Australia through to the 2007 Rugby World Cup, he also had an offer to coach Japan which he turned down.[6]
In 2005, the Wallabies suffered a spate of injuries and lost seven straight games and at the end of the Wallabies European tour had lost eight of their last nine matches, with the scrum in particular struggling. After a 22-24 loss to Wales at the Millennium Stadium, on 2 December 2005 his contract was terminated as the Wallabies head coach.[7] While the Australian Rugby Union had ordered a report into the Wallabies after the season including a review of Jones's position as head coach, it has been speculated that the Wallabies' loss to Wales was why Jones was removed as head coach before the investigation had even begun.
Post Wallabies
Just over a month after Jones was relieved of his position as Wallabies head coach, he signed a three-year deal with the Queensland Reds to take over as head coach after the 2006 Super 14 season. In February 2006 joined Saracens on a consultancy role until the end of the season to help them after they were struggling towards the bottom of the league.[8]
Jones endured a torrid season at the Reds in 2007 who finished bottom of the Super 14 table only managing two wins the entire season. Injury spells meant Jones at times was to do without up to 8 regulars to his starting team, including the loss of influential Wallabies fullback Chris Latham even before the season started. His last match was an away defeat to the Bulls by a Super Rugby record margin of 89 points which led to mounting calls amongst the media for him to be sacked.[9] His stint at the Reds is by far the least successful of his coaching career and he resigned after just one season in charge.[10] During his time at the Reds he was also fined $10,000 dollars for calling the performance of referee Matt Goddard "disgraceful" and "lacking common sense" after a close 6-3 loss to his former side the Brumbies.[11]
South Africa
Later in 2007, he turned down an approach from Fiji to be a technical advisor to the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, and instead was appointed by Springbok coach Jake White to be the technical advisor of the South African team at the tournament.[12] He was criticised by the ARU Chief Executive John O'Neill for taking up a job to try and help Australia's rivals.[13]
South Africa went on to win the World Cup, and Jones was praised for his role in the success, with former coach Nick Mallett calling the move from White to appoint him a "masterstroke" and credited him with improved backline play by South Africa at the tournament.[14] Jones was an official part of the Springbok coaching team, but because he isn't South African, he was not given a Springbok blazer - instead Jones wore his tracksuit, a condition in his contract with SA Rugby prior to being appointed.
After the World Cup, Jones rejoined Saracens, initially in an advisory role,[15] before taking over the director of rugby role for the 2008/09 season.[16] However he announced he would be stepping down at the end of the season due to "personal reasons" in February,[17] then quit early in March 2009 after disagreements with the board and described the period as "the worst he has had in rugby".[18]
Return to Japan (2009–2015)
After leaving Saracens, Jones rejoined Suntory Sungoliath in Japan. He brought together a strong team bringing in George Smith, Fourie du Preez and Danie Rossouw who he had coached in previous jobs, and coached them to win the Top League title in 2012 winning the final 47–28 against the Panasonic Wild Knights alongside two consecutive All Japan Championship wins.
Following Sir John Kirwan resigning from his post, Jones was appointed to take over in 2012 as Japan national rugby union team head coach and lead the team to the 2015 Rugby World Cup.[19] Jones quickly took the team in a different direction to Kirwan. His first move as the Japan coach was to reduce the number of foreigners}, who had been prominent in the Japan team under Kirwan and to try and encourage the Japanese to play their own style. He also said his goal was to bring Japan up a level, to be among the top 10.[20]
Despite losing all three of his first Pacific Nations Cup matches by narrow margins, in November 2012 Jones coached the side to their first ever wins in Europe, beating Romania and Georgia.
In 2013, Jones led Japan to their sixth consecutive championship win in the Asian Five Nations, where Japan achieved a tournament record score of 121–0 against the Philippines. Japan later lost to Tonga in the opening round of the 2013 IRB Pacific Nations Cup, which was followed by a defeat to Fiji in round 2. Following these matches, Jones coached the Brave Blossoms to a series draw against Wales after narrowly losing the first test 18–22 and winning the second test 23–8. This was the first time Japan had recorded a victory over the Welsh.
On 16 October, he was hospitalised after having a suspected stroke and was released from hospital on 18 October.[21][22] With the announcement of his release from hospital, it was announced that Jones would miss Japan's 2013 end-of-year rugby union tests against New Zealand, Scotland, Gloucester, Russia and Spain, and former Australia skills coach and current technical adviser for Japan, Scott Wisemantel, would coach Japan in the interim for their 2013 end-of-year rugby union tests.[23]
In 2014, Jones secured Japan's seventh consecutive Asian Five Nations title, before jointly winning the 2014 IRB Pacific Nations Cup with Fiji. Japan won the Asia/Pacific conference with victories over Canada 34–25 and the United States 37–29. In June that year, Japan claimed a 26–23 victory over Italy, which was Japan's tenth consecutive win, a record for a Tier 2 Nation. During the 2014 end-of-year rugby union internationals, Japan lost their series with the Māori All Blacks 2–0, but went on to secure a 18–13 win over Romania. Following this victory, Japan rose to ninth in the World Rankings, their highest ever position and achieved Jones's aim of reaching the top 10 in the world.
In 2015, after securing the 2015 Asian Rugby Championship, Japan suffered three consecutive losses in the 2015 World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup. After beating Canada 20–6, they lost to the United States, Fiji and Tonga to finish fourth with just 1 win. Japan later went on to beat Uruguay twice and Georgia in World Cup Warm-up matches. In the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Japan managed an upset win over South Africa with a spectacular last minute try in their first pool match, finishing the match 34–32, an incredible victory with bold determination.[24] However, 4-days later, Japan went down to Scotland 45–10, despite still being in game at half time. A week later, Japan secured a record victory over Samoa, winning 26–5 which guaranteed a top 3 finish for Japan in the pool. In the final match of the pool stage, Japan beat the United States 28–18, which meant Japan became the first ever nation to record three victories in the pool stage, and fail to advance to the knock out stage.[25] That 28–18 victory was Jones' last in charge of Japan.
The Stormers
After the completing his duties at the helm of the Japan national rugby union team at the Rugby World Cup 2015, Jones joined Super Rugby franchise The Stormers in Cape Town. On the 19th of November 2015 only 8 days after joining the Stormers, Jones was signed by England Rugby to become their first foreign head coach by replacing Stuart Lancaster. Due to a break clause in his agreement with the Stormers, the RFU paid a compensation figure £100,000 to release him from his contract. In November 2015 Jones became one of the highest paid head coaches in world rugby.[26][27]
England
Jones was named as the new England head coach on 20 November 2015.[28] He agreed a four-year deal to become England's first foreign head coach, that would see him lead the English into the 2019 Rugby World Cup.[29][30]
Jones brought in Steve Borthwick, who also coached Japan with him, from Bristol, and Paul Gustard from Saracens as his assistant coaches. The coaching team led England to their first Grand Slam since 2003, haven beaten all their opponents in the 2016 Six Nations Championship. They opened with a 15–9 win over Scotland before seeing out Italy 40–9.
In Jones' first home game, he led England to a 21–10 victory over Ireland, before going onto beat Wales 25–21 a week later - at one point they led the Welsh 19–0, though conceded 3 tries in the second half. England secured the Championship on 13 March when Scotland beat France, which meant England was going into the final round having already secured the title. A 31–21 victory over France in the final game of the 2016 Championship, saw England win their first Grand Slam since 2003.[31]
Coaching statistics
Australia
International matches as head coach
Note: World Rankings Column shows the World Ranking England was placed at on the following Monday after each of their matches
Record by country
Opponent | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Win ratio (%) |
Pts For | Against |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Argentina | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 41 | 14 |
England | 7 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 29 | 165 | 158 |
France | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 50 | 140 | 139 |
Ireland | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 75 | 101 | 64 |
Italy | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 103 | 24 |
Namibia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 142 | 0 |
New Zealand | 11 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 45 | 201 | 246 |
Pacific Islanders | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 29 | 14 |
Romania | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 90 | 8 |
Samoa | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 74 | 7 |
Scotland | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 164 | 75 |
South Africa | 12 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 33 | 283 | 267 |
Spain | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 92 | 10 |
Wales | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 67 | 73 | 47 |
TOTAL | 57 | 33 | 1 | 23 | 58 | 1698 | 1073 |
Honours
- Rugby World Cup / Webb Ellis Cup
- Runners-up: 2003
- Tri Nations Series
- Winners: 2001
- Runners-up: 2002, 2003, 2004
- Bledisloe Cup
- Winners: 2001, 2002
- Puma Trophy
- Winners: 2002
- Cook Cup
- Winners: Jun 2004, Nov 2004
- Trophée des Bicentenaires
- Winners: 2002, Jul 2005
- Hopetoun Cup
- Winners: June 2004, Nov 2004
- Lansdowne Cup
- Winners: 2003, 2005
Japan
International matches as head coach
Note: World Rankings Column shows the World Ranking Japan was placed at on the following Monday after each of their matches
Honours
- Asian Five Nations/Asian Rugby Championship
- Winner: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
- World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup
- Winner: 2014
England
International matches as head coach
Note: World Rankings Column shows the World Ranking England was placed at on the following Monday after each of their matches
Record by country
Opponent | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Win ratio (%) |
Pts For | Against |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
France | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 31 | 21 |
Ireland | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 21 | 10 |
Italy | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 40 | 9 |
Scotland | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 15 | 9 |
Wales | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 25 | 21 |
TOTAL | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 132 | 70 |
Honours
- Six Nations Championship
- Winners: 2016
- Triple Crown
- Winners: 2016
- Calcutta Cup
- Winners: 2016
- Millennium Trophy
- Winners: 2016
Goldman Sachs
In November 2015 Jones was appointed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to the bank’s advisory board in Japan. The board comprises people from the public and private sector and was created in 2001 to advise Goldman Sachs on business, regulatory, and public policy issues in Japan. Masanori Mochida, president of Goldman Sachs Japan Co stated that “Goldman Sachs will benefit from his unrivaled leadership and his ability to bring together a multi-cultural team”[32]
Other honours
- Shute Shield
- Winner: 1994
Japan (as assistant coach)
- Asian Rugby Championship
- Winner: 1996
- Super 12
- Winner: 2001
- Runner-up: 2000
South Africa (as assistant coach)
- Rugby World Cup / Webb Ellis Cup
- Winner: 2007
References
- ↑ "Eddie Jones".
- ↑ "NEW SOUTH WALES B 19 - 39 BRITISH & IRISH LIONS".
- ↑
- ↑ Eddie Jones: Meet England's new coach for Six Nations 2016
- ↑ "Eddie Jones eyes England and Japan vacancies".
- ↑ Gray, William (27 March 2004). "Jones signs new contract". The Daily Telegraph (London).
- ↑ "Jones sacked as Wallabies coach". BBC News. 2 December 2005.
- ↑ "Jones relishing Sarries challenge". BBC News. 14 February 2006.
- ↑ "Pressure again mounting on Eddie Jones".
- ↑ "Jones parts company with Reds".
- ↑ "Eddie Jones cops a hefty fine".
- ↑ "Coach Jones joins Springboks camp". BBC News. 7 August 2007.
- ↑ "O'Neill slams Jones for helping Springboks".
- ↑ Mallett, Nick (7 October 2007). "Eddie Jones gives South Africa confidence". The Daily Telegraph (London).
- ↑ "JONES BACK AT SARACENS".
- ↑ "Saracens turn to Eddie Jones".
- ↑ "Eddie Jones quits Saracens for family".
- ↑ "Coach Jones leaves Saracens early". BBC News. 13 March 2009.
- ↑ "Eddie Jones replaces John Kirwan as coach of Japan". The Australian. 27 December 2011.
- ↑ "Eddie Jones says Japan's goal is to be top 10 for 2015 World Cup". The Australian. 28 December 2011.
- ↑ "Eddie Jones hospitalised after Japan rugby coach suffers suspected stroke - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". Retrieved 2013-10-17.
- ↑ "Eddie Jones released from intensive care after stroke but will miss Japan's Test with All Blacks". Retrieved 2013-10-18.
- ↑ Scott Wisemantel interim coach of Japan
- ↑ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11515927
- ↑ Japan sign off with third win of the tournament by beating the USA
- ↑ "Eddie Jones bids farewell to The Stormers and apologises for 'selfish' decision to take England job, eight days after being unveiled in Cape Town on a three-year deal". Daily Mail. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
- ↑ "Eddie Jones signs as England’s first overseas head coach". The Telegraph. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
- ↑ "Eddie Jones: Australian appointed England head coach". BBC Sport. 20 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
- ↑ "Eddie Jones named new England coach: live". Daily Telegraph. 20 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
- ↑ "Eddie Jones appointed England head coach by RFU". Guardian. 20 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
- ↑ "France 21 England 31: Eddie Jones promises more is to come from England after Grand Slam success". Daily Telegraph. 19 March 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
- ↑ "Goldman Sachs Hires England's New Rugby Coach Eddie Jones". Bloomberg. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
Sporting positions | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by Rod Macqueen |
Australia National Rugby Union Coach 2001-2005 |
Succeeded by John Connolly |
Preceded by John Kirwan |
Japan National Rugby Union Coach 2012-2015 |
Succeeded by Jamie Joseph |
Preceded by Stuart Lancaster |
England National Rugby Union Coach 2015-Present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
|