Eddie Jones questioned whether Rugby Australia matched his commitment to making “real change” as he resigned as the Wallabies head coach.
Jones, whose departure was confirmed on Tuesday, was appointed last January on a five-year contract and with grand plans to get his homeland back among world rugby’s elite. However, after the Wallabies failed to make it out of the World Cup group stage for the first time at the tournament in France, he stepped down within ten months of taking over.
The World Cup catastrophe was the latest symbol of the two-times world champions’ steep decline. Jones, 63, also coached Australia between 2001 and 2005, and intimated that his superiors did not share his willingness to revive the sport in the country.
“My commitment to Australian rugby has been 100 per cent. I did want to go on. Coaching a team is a bit like being in a marriage, you need commitment from both sides,” he told Channel 9 in Australia.
“I was committed to changing the team. Rugby Australia at the moment cannot activate the changes, financial and political, to make real change in Australian rugby.”
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Jones, having been sacked by England last December, was appointed to lead Australia into a British & Irish Lions series in 2025 and a home World Cup in 2027. But after a World Cup that featured Australia’s first defeat by Fiji in 69 years and their heaviest defeat by Wales, Jones leaves believing that he and Rugby Australia did not share a long-term vision.
“I don’t like to be in projects where I don’t think they can really get to where they need to get to and I’ve made that decision,” he said.
“Rugby Australia probably doesn’t think that and that’s where the unity of our project is not in the place it needs to be.
“Sometimes you go in the bank and blow it up but you don’t come out with the money.”
The Rugby Australia chief executive, Phil Waugh, said he was disappointed with Jones’s comments but acknowledged there were differences with him about the way forward.
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“I’ve got to be fiscally responsible as to how we spend our money,” the former Wallabies flanker said at a press conference in Sydney.
Jones also that said he had not had a job offer from Japan, whom he coached between 2012 and 2015.
On September 24, the morning of the record-breaking defeat by Wales, it was reported that Jones had been interviewed for the Japan head coach job two weeks before the tournament. Yet Jones insisted his future is uncertain. “I’ve got no job to go to, no job offer,” he said.
Waugh said he “took Eddie on his word” when he denied reports linking Jones with Japan and added that Rugby Australia had reached a sound agreement.
“We’ve come to a sensible conclusion, both for Eddie and for Rugby Australia,” he said. “Our focus will be reconnecting with the Australian public rather than where Eddie’s going to be.
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“I don’t think it changes the position we’re at now, whether Eddie was to stay or go. This is hopefully a low point and a chance to reset. The most important thing is to unite.”
Jones will officially leave his role on November 25 and Waugh said Rugby Australia would use “however long it takes” to ensure it got the “best possible coach”.
Waugh refused to be drawn on the position of the chairman Hamish McLennan, who has faced criticism for replacing Dave Rennie with Jones on a five-year deal in January — weeks after he had been dismissed by England.
“Ultimately the board is responsible for this decision,” he said. “It’s speculation where we would have been if we had not made that call and Dave had stayed on.
“The results were not up to expectation. The board has made some bold calls. Hindsight is a wonderful thing . . . where we ended up was not good enough.”
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McLennan had already vowed to continue in his role, telling the Sydney Morning Herald: “I came to rugby to find a way to fix it when it all fell over and despite the sad Eddie situation, this is another hurdle we’ll overcome.
“I want to stay to deliver the 2027 World Cup in Australia. That has always been the big prize for Australian rugby.
“More destabilisation will just make matters worse, just when we’re about to break through. Life is not a continuous line of perfect calls and success.”
