Eddie Jones resigns as Australia boss after disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign

• Eddie Jones has quit the Wallabies 
• He oversaw terrible World Cup campaign 
• Jones has been linked to Japan job 
• Latest Rugby World Cup 2023 news, including fixtures, live scores and results

Eddie Jones has left his post as coach of the Australian rugby team.

The Wallabies coach oversaw a disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign in which the Wallabies were dumped out at the pool stage, with Wales and Fiji advancing to the knockout rounds. 

Jones returned to Australia earlier this year, taking over from Dave Rennie on a $4.5million contract that ran until 2027, with rugby bosses planning for the 63-year-old to develop the team with the next World Cup – to be hosted Down Under – in mind. 

The Australian claims Jones will not receive a payout after he met with Rugby Australia powerbrokers Phil Waugh and Hamish McLennan over the weekend, where they agreed to part ways amicably.  

Jones’s long-term vision has been called into question, with the former England boss reportedly holding talks with the Japanese federation over their head coach role. 

Jones denied speculation he met with Japan bosses prior to the tournament in France, although reports in Asia suggest he is on the cusp of taking the job with the Brave Blossoms. 

Eddie Jones has quit the Wallabies after less than a year in the role

Jones admitted ‘I’ve got the timing wrong’ after taking over just before the World Cup

‘The only thing I’m disappointed about is the media was trying to portray me as not being committed to Australian rugby,’ he said upon confirming his departure.

‘The last thing anyone could criticise me about is commitment. Anyone that really knows me, knows I’ve been committed to it. I’ve given it a go.’

Previous reports claimed that Jones had exit clauses in his contract which have allowed him to break his deal if Rugby Australia fails to secure private investment funding or provide a centralised model. Both objectives have not been achieved yet.

‘It’s the old equation that if you want success you’ve got to have to get the timing right and you’ve got to have an opportunity to do it,’ he said. 

‘Now I’ve got the timing wrong, because we’re not ready for the change yet. 

‘But hopefully maybe what I can be is a catalyst for change and people will start to see, we really need to get onto this now [changing Australian rugby’s high performance system].’ 

Jones won just two of his games in charge of the Wallabies, and identified two major problems with the direction the sport is going in Australia.  

‘Firstly, it’s capturing the talent,’ he said. ‘Currently at the age of 14, 15, every athletic kid, the NRL teams want them if they are tall and they can run, AFL teams want them too – and if they’re tough, rugby teams want them – and what we’re doing, we’re not capturing the amount of talent we need to capture and keeping them.

Australia suffered a disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign in France this year

‘And then secondly, we need a much more competitive environment at the top professional end, and we need players to have to work really hard, to be good players to try to survive,’ Jones said. 

Jones maintains he does not have another job lined up, despite the Japan links, but revealed his ambitions for one more cycle at international level.  

‘I’m not a highly religious person, but you’ve always got a job to do somewhere and sometimes, you’ve got to eat a bit of s*** for the people to eat the nice buffet a few years later and maybe I’ve had to eat a bit of s*** to do it, you know?’ Jones said.

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