The depth of connection between Japanese rugby and Eddie Jones is best captured by this statistic: when the 63-year-old is rubber-stamped as head coach of Japan this week, as expected, it will be his third job with a tier-one Test team in 372 days.
Evidently, then, Japan’s reunion with Jones comes after a decidedly inglorious year for the veteran coach, who was subject to messy exits from the head coaching roles of England and Australia before returning to the Brave Blossoms, who he last coached in 2015.
The obvious question is why? Why would the JRFU view Jones as the right man for its future, when it witnessed – like everyone – his acrimonious sacking from the RFU on December 6 last year, and then the rolling shambles of his return to the Wallabies job in 2023, which ended on October 29?
The answer to that, likely, contains two parts: Jones’ unrivalled ability as a dream-conjuring salesman, and his well-established roots in Japanese rugby, which are highlighted by the famous “Miracle of Brighton” win over the Springboks in 2015 but in fact stretch back almost three decades.
Jones’ first full-time job as a rugby coach was in Japan in 1995, when he moved from being a school principal and reserve-grade coach at Randwick to coaching Tokai University. He became forwards coach of the Japanese national team as well, a year later, via his long-time friend Glen Ella, who was then backs coach.
Rugby in Japan was a natural fit for Jones, who has Japanese heritage on his mother’s side. Jones’ mother, Nell, was a Japanese-American who’d been in an internment camp in California in World War Two, and after subsequently moving to Japan, met his father Ted, an Australian serviceman. They later moved to Tasmania. Jones also has a Japanese wife, Hiroko, a teacher he met in Sydney.
Eddie Jones, pictured with Ewen McKenzie, went from playing and coaching at Randwick to full-time coaching in Japan.Credit: Craig Golding
Jones signed on to join leading Japanese club Suntory in 1998 but was approached to take over the Brumbies, so he struck a deal under which if Suntory released him, he would return in his holidays and help out for free. Jones still consults at Suntory 25 years later, and with a home in Japan, spends up to three months a year there.
(The Suntory coach in 1997 was Tsuchida Masato, who is now JRFU president and was reportedly the driving force behind Jones applying to come back to Japan this year, despite him having a five-year contract with Rugby Australia.)
Jones’ returned to Suntory and coached the club to success between 2010 and 2012 before stepping up for his second stint with the Japanese national team in 2013. It was a prosperous three years in which Jones developed a successful Japanese style – and beat tier-one teams – for the first time.
Ditching the habit of previous coaches to use overseas-born players, Jones backed locals and using a style of hard work and discipline, built a game to suit their speed and fitness.
It shocked the Japanese system – one famous Jones’ press conference blow-up in 2012 went viral – but it worked. Japan went from easybeats to downing Wales in 2013, and after being drawn with South Africa in the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Jones set a target of shocking the world.
After a 12-week “Beat the Boks” camp before the 2015 World Cup, with multiple training sessions a day, the Japan team rolled South Africa in one of the greatest upsets ever. It was only the second World Cup victory for Japan ever and though they missed the quarter-finals (they had to beat Scotland four days later), the win put Japanese rugby on the main stage for the first time.
Japan celebrating in 2015 after beating the Springboks.Credit: Getty Images
Jones had moved to England by the time Japan hosted the 2019 Rugby World Cup, but the team’s now-rampant belief and up-tempo style carried forward under new coach Jamie Joseph, and they beat Ireland and Scotland and made the quarter-finals.
Japan hoped to launch themselves as a world rugby power thereafter, but COVID killed momentum and the next four years were lacklustre. From a high of No.7 in 2019, Japan’s world ranking is back to No.12 and they didn’t make an impression at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
It was announced in July that Joseph would not continue, and by August the JRFU was interviewing new candidates for the job.
Eddie Jones and Japan’s captain Michael Leitch in 2015 after beating the Springboks in the Rugby World Cup.Credit: AP
Under bullish new president Masato, Japan are aspirational and keen to host the 2035 Rugby World Cup. They want Japanese rugby to return to the heights of 2019 and the role of the head coach is set to be expanded to an all-powerful role.
“I want the new HC to oversee all levels, from high school, U20 to the top level. I want the person to do it consistently, including university rugby,” Masato said.
Setting aside reports from Japanese website Sponichi of a “private” deal for the job between Masato and Jones from the outset, Jones’ knowledge of the workings of Japanese rugby gave him a big head start over rival candidate Frans Ludeke, whose Japan experience was limited to success with Kubota Spears.
And don’t underestimate Jones’ ability to sell a dream. It’s easy to imagine the JRFU interview panel being wooed with the same intoxicating rhetoric Australian rugby was imbibing early this year, when a smash-and-grab campaign at the World Cup still seemed possible.
If they were raised, the Jones spin of his exits from England and Australia may have even helped the pitch: neither mob had the courage to back me.
But the JRFU will go into its second marriage to Jones with eyes very wide open.
It’s worth remembering Japanese rugby officials have always known the truth of Jones’ involvement in the August 25 Zoom interview, and have witnessed all the straight-up denials from the coach since.
It appears they’re OK with it.
Clearly the memories of Brighton, and Japan rugby’s finest day, remain powerful. Intoxicating, even.
And besides, what could go wrong?
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