Eddie Jones: England fans still thank me for what I did – it makes me emotional

My Sporting Life is The i Paper’s look behind the curtain at what drives sports stars to greatness. Eddie Jones was the first foreigner to coach the England rugby union team, from 2016 to 2022, winning three Six Nations and losing the 2019 World Cup final to South Africa. He is now back in charge of Japan, having also coached his native Australia. He started out as a teacher and a rugby player in the amateur era. With a reputation as a tough workaholic, here he reflects on the ups and downs of a 45-year career. When I was a young coach, I was too obsessed with winning and being right all the time If I had the experience I have now, I would have been much more moderated; more patient and listening more. When you’re young, you just want to get your knowledge out there and show how clever you are. The Australian won three Six Nations titles in seven years as England head coach from 2016 to 2022 (Photo: Getty) Applying it to the right context is the wisdom you gain. I had the beauty of meeting Alex Ferguson a few times, and I just read his new book, and you hear this from him, and it’s wise. I still work hard, but I am more cognisant of not expecting everyone else to do the same. I’m a huge cricket fan, probably a bigger cricket fan than I am a rugby fan I was lucky enough when I was coaching England to go to the Wimbledon Royal Box, and I sat next to Sachin Tendulkar. To sit next to one of the greats of the game was just extraordinary. He was hoping I wouldn’t keep on asking questions about cricket! Because there are two things I’ve missed out on: I always wanted to be a cricket coach, and I always wanted to be a rugby league coach. When I was growing up, they were the two loves I had. And rugby [union] came after that, and it gave me a pathway to coaching that meant I had to stop playing cricket. I think I would have… you know, trying to be humble… I would have made an okay cricket coach. I would have loved the challenge of putting together a cricket team. What [Brendon] McCullum did with England, that was absolutely bold, and for a time it was brilliant. It didn’t end up as he would have liked, but his courage and his ambition to try to get an English side to play like that was a fantastic coaching job. My wife Annie and I have still got a house in England My wife loves England – she never wanted to leave. I do feel a warmth for English rugby and for English people. You know, I’m a rough Australian out of the back streets of the eastern suburbs of Sydney. To do seven years with England was a real privilege and honour. And I’ve had English people coming up and saying, ‘oh, thank you for what you did’, and it makes you feel emotional. I don’t expect it, and I don’t sort of harbour it, but when it comes, it’s nice. And it’s very genuine too. In English sporting teams, you’ve got football, cricket, and rugby, and they’re bloody high-profile jobs. The expectation’s huge to win – and then when you win, you’ve got to do it with style, to keep everyone happy. And that’s great, but the head coach is under a lot of expectation and pressure. I loved every moment of it. Even at the end [he was sacked in December 2022], when we weren’t playing well, the players I was starting to bring through are now playing in Steve Borthwick’s team, which gives me some satisfaction. The Currys [Tom and Ben], JVP [Jack van Poortvliet], [Ollie] Chessum, [Alex] Coles, Marcus [Smith], [Henry] Arundell. All those guys, we brought through. With England at first, basically the team played against all my instincts Jones shares a handshake with Owen Farrell, one of the players he helped shape during his time in charge (Photo: Getty) We were a defence, kicking team, and we were good at it. Then by that 2019 World Cup we were able to morph into being a good attacking team. We had Manu Tuilagi, and he got us on the front foot. The other times I was happiest were with Japan, first time round, when we went back to playing like a Japanese team: fast and with the ball in hand. And with the Brumbies [1998-2001], in the era of [George] Gregan, [Steve] Larkham, [Rod] Kafer, [Joe] Roff. We recreated how you played rugby at that time. Every Monday night we’d have a kind of board meeting, with five or six of the players, chewing over the game plan, sometimes for two or three hours. It was very collective and we played with such a passion. It was the team you want to be, where everyone wants to see what you’re doing. It’s a bit like South Africa now. Everyone wants to play like South Africa. But you need to have the talent. There again, the Brumbies made me weep, too My first year with them, we’d played about 10 games, and we played the Stormers in Cape Town, and they were a big physical team, and we got absolutely monstered. We’d won two and lost eight, and I went back to my room thinking “how am I going to turn these blokes around,” and I remember sitting there and crying. And a year later, I was crying again because five of our players got arrested after beating the same team! One of the things that allow you longevity in coaching is to be reflective. Be honest when you’ve had shortcomings or mistakes, then get on with it. Read more James Haskell: Having a daughter is an emotional hand grenade Jonathan Joseph: Borthwick has silenced England’s critics – and it changes everything Somewhere in Japan is the samurai sword I bought to make a gesture with my England team When we played [and won] in the [2019 World Cup] semi-final against New Zealand, I chopped up kiwi fruit in front of the players before the game. That was a bit of fun. But I couldn’t get the samurai sword back to England, so I had to give it away. It cost about 800 pounds. But it was worth it – it worked.