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Eddie Jones (rugby union)

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Eddie Jones
Date of birth (1960-01-30) 30 January 1960 (age 64)
Place of birthBurnie, Tasmania, Australia
SchoolMatraville Sports High School
Rugby union career
Position(s) Hooker
Senior career
Years Team Apps (Points)
– Randwick ()
Provincial / State sides
Years Team Apps (Points)
1987–1989 New South Wales 12 (0)
Coaching career
Years 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 couch 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] 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.

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.[3]

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 onto to become one of Australia's greatest players.[citation needed]

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.[4]

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.[5] 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.

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 5 029 165 158
 France 6 3 0 3 050 140 139
 Ireland 4 3 0 1 075 101 64
 Italy 2 2 0 0 100 103 24
 Namibia 1 1 0 0 100 142 0
 New Zealand 11 5 0 6 045 201 246
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 7 033 283 267
 Spain 1 1 0 0 100 92 10
 Wales 3 2 0 1 067 73 47
TOTAL 57 33 1 23 058 1698 1073

Honours

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.[6]

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.[7] His stint at the Reds is by far the least successful of his coaching career and he resigned after just one season in charge.[8] 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.[9]

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.[10] He was criticised by the ARU Chief Executive John O'Neill for taking up a job to try and help Australia's rivals.[11]

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.[12] Jones was an official part of the Springbok coaching team, but because he isn't South African, he was not offered an official Springbok Rugby Blazer, instead Jones wore his tracksuit, which was a condition in his contract with SA Rugby prior to being appointed.

After the World Cup, Jones rejoined Saracens, initially in an advisory role,[13] before taking over the director of rugby role for the 2008/09 season.[14] However he announced he would be stepping down at the end of the season due to "personal reasons" in February,[15] then quit early in March 2009 after disagreements with the board and described the period as "the worst he has had in rugby".[16]

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.[17] 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[citation needed]}, 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.[18]

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.[19][20] 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.[21]

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.[22] 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.[23] That 28–18 victory was Jones' last in charge of Japan.

Honors

England

Jones was named as the new England head coach on 20 November 2015.[24] He agreed a four-year deal to become England's first foreign head coach.[25][26]

Other honors

Randwick

Japan (as assistant coach)

Brumbies

South Africa (as assistant coach)

Suntory Sungoliath

References

  1. ^ "Eddie Jones".
  2. ^ "NEW SOUTH WALES B 19 - 39 BRITISH & IRISH LIONS".
  3. ^ "Eddie Jones eyes England and Japan vacancies".
  4. ^ Gray, William (27 March 2004). "Jones signs new contract". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  5. ^ "Jones sacked as Wallabies coach". BBC News. 2 December 2005.
  6. ^ "Jones relishing Sarries challenge". BBC News. 14 February 2006.
  7. ^ "Pressure again mounting on Eddie Jones".
  8. ^ "Jones parts company with Reds".
  9. ^ "Eddie Jones cops a hefty fine".
  10. ^ "Coach Jones joins Springboks camp". BBC News. 7 August 2007.
  11. ^ "O'Neill slams Jones for helping Springboks".
  12. ^ Mallett, Nick (7 October 2007). "Eddie Jones gives South Africa confidence". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  13. ^ "JONES BACK AT SARACENS".
  14. ^ "Saracens turn to Eddie Jones".
  15. ^ "Eddie Jones quits Saracens for family".
  16. ^ "Coach Jones leaves Saracens early". BBC News. 13 March 2009.
  17. ^ "Eddie Jones replaces John Kirwan as coach of Japan". The Australian. 27 December 2011.
  18. ^ "Eddie Jones says Japan's goal is to be top 10 for 2015 World Cup". The Australian. 28 December 2011.
  19. ^ "Eddie Jones hospitalised after Japan rugby coach suffers suspected stroke - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  20. ^ "Eddie Jones released from intensive care after stroke but will miss Japan's Test with All Blacks". Retrieved 18 October 2013.
  21. ^ Scott Wisemantel interim coach of Japan
  22. ^ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11515927
  23. ^ Japan sign off with third win of the tournament by beating the USA
  24. ^ "Eddie Jones: Australian appointed England head coach". BBC Sport. 20 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  25. ^ "Eddie Jones named new England coach: live". Daily Telegraph. 20 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  26. ^ "Eddie Jones appointed England head coach by RFU". Guardian. 20 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
Sporting positions
Preceded by Australia National Rugby Union Coach
2001-2005 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Japan National Rugby Union Coach
2012-2015 		Succeeded by
TBC
Preceded by England National Rugby Union Coach
2015-Present 		Succeeded by
Incumbent

Template:Persondata

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