The last time it ended in tears, in an elevator after his final press conference as Australia head coach. But, as it turns out, it would not be the final time.
Rugby Australia dropped a bombshell on Monday morning, announcing that Eddie Jones would be returning as Wallabies head coach and that Dave Rennie’s time at the helm was over.
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He had taken the Wallabies to the World Cup final back in 2003 and coached them to win the Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup. More recently, Jones took England to two-straight series victories over the Wallabies on their own turf.
Now Jones has a shot at revenge of a different kind, even if it isn’t all about revenge for Jones, who was linked to a potential Wallabies homecoming back in July last year.
Jones was still England coach at that point, later sacked by the Rugby Football Union in early December as Rugby Australia swiftly confirmed its interest in the 62-year-old.
“It is fair to say that hell hath no fury like an Eddie scorned,” McLennan told The Telegraph at the time.
“I can’t confirm this, but I am pretty sure that Eddie’s first love is Wallaby gold.”
The team certainly meant a lot to Jones. It is why the news of his sacking hurt so much, denying him a chance to make up for the defeat to England at the World Cup in 2003.
Jones opened up on his emotional exit in his book, describing his mouth crumpling “into a little ball” as he was consoled by media advisor David Pembroke after fronting the media.
“We had just started to descend when the first tears fell. I couldn’t stop them,” he wrote.
“I cried in the lift … I shook my head as the tears kept rolling down my face. My mouth was crumpled into a little ball which I eventually managed to open.”
Jones wrote of how the news left him “reeling” and, more importantly, of how he was determined to prove this was not the end.
“Finally, just before we reached the ground floor,” he wrote at the time, “I got the words out: ‘I will coach at this level again’.”
And he did, taking over as England coach in 2015 and remaining at the helm for seven years before a stretch of disappointing results saw the team win just five of 12 Tests in 2022.
Jones later told BBC that he felt his sacking was “coming” but England captain Owen Farrell was not afraid to go in to bat for his former coach, calling the decision “unbelievably disappointing”.
While England’s poor results in 2022 may have led to Jones’ demise, Farrell was adamant that the drop in form was not just down to the coach and that “everyone” was responsible.
Jones may have not been surprised by the call but that did not mean he was left questioning his coaching as a result. The opposite was true in fact, with the Australian telling the BBC he “didn’t think” he was “coaching poorly” and that he “wouldn’t do anything differently”.
It was far from the end for Jones’ coaching career anyway, as The Times’ Alex Lowe reported on Monday morning. The former Wallabies coach had his eyes on something bigger, keen to end on a better note.
“While sad to lose the England job, he was convinced he wanted to keep coaching, telling friends he had “one more big job” left in him and that his best days still lay ahead,” Lowe wrote.
RA powerbrokers will certainly be hoping Jones’ better days are still ahead, particularly with the 2027 World Cup shaping as the perfect chance to make a statement on the international stage.
As The Daily Telegraph’s Jamie Pandaram pointed out on Fox Sports News Jones does have a proven record for turning a team’s fortunes around — and quickly too. Whether there is enough time before the World Cup in France later this year though remains to be seen.
“It’s a bold move,” Pandaram said.
“We’re talking only eight months out from the Rugby World Cup. Jones has no real history with any of the current Wallabies except for coaching against them. He’s going to have learn personalities very quickly.
“I imagine game plans, style of play will be ripped up. Jones is very much his own man and own coach. He will have his own ideas on how he is going to get this Wallabies group up and running by the World Cup.
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“He has a good track record of having success very quickly but it remains to be seen whether he has enough time to transition this team, which has become accustomed to losing tight contests and losing important games, whether this is a group he can turn around and get success from in France this year.”
Chairman Hamish McLennan said this was a “major coup” that Rugby Australia “did not want to miss” out on and there was no time to wait, with plenty of interest in Jones elsewhere.
Jones may have been branded a “traitor” by one supporter at the Sydney Cricket Ground last year but now he has an opportunity to finish what he started over two decades ago.
The hope, this time, is that it will not end in tears.
And as much as this may not only be about revenge for Jones, he will get a chance to exact just that later this year should England and Australia meet at the quarter-final stage of the Rugby World Cup in France.
Wallabies great Matt Giteau described the decision to sack Jones as a “big mistake”, and it may be only a matter of time before he is proven right.
As McLennan warned, there is nothing like a “scorned” Eddie.
