Australia are planning to hi-jack Eddie Jones after the 2019 World Cup in Japan despite the England head coach signing a new contract to keep him the job until 2021.
Jones took Australia to the World Cup final in 2003 where they lost to Jonny Wilkinson’s extra time drop goal and he ended a four year reign in 2005. He took Japan to the 2015 World Cup with a win over South Africa raising his stock and making him the man chosen to replace Stuart Lancaster as England head coach later that year.
England have won successive Six Nations titles and 24 of the 26 games under Jones and with Michael Cheika announcing he will quit as Wallaby coach if he dosen’t win the World Cup in Japan, Australian rugby chiefs are putting their short list of possible replacements together. If he returned home to coach the Wallabies again, Jones would rule himself out of being the British and Irish Lions coach to South Africa in 2021.
Ben Whitaker , Rugby Australia’s (RA) high performance manager, is in charge of the process and has made it clear Jones is on his radar having previously worked with the England head coach whose contract has been extended by the Rugby Football Union until 2021 to enable him to mentor his successor.
The RFU contract, however, includes a break clause based on England’s performance in Japan and Jones will be irritated that this issue has come up as he prepares the team to face France in Paris on Saturday.
Whitaker said:” “I can’t speak on behalf of the board, but if I’m tasked with pulling together a list of potential candidates, is Eddie Jones on there, yeah he is. Quite obviously. Where that goes in terms of the process that we run, well, that will be determined. I actually worked here with Eddie back in 2003-05 — not that that makes any difference — but you appreciate the skills he’s got as a head coach. And if he’s willing and able — things you’d have to work out — he’d be on the list, probably another dozen would be too.
“A lot of times the issue at international level is inexperience. (International experience) may be part of the criteria.
“Clearly Eddie’s one who has done that and then obviously been a favourable candidate for roles because of that international experience, but also his success.
“There will be others on that list — even Australians, your Scott Johnsons of the world (Scotland’s director of rugby), who have been at that international level.If you look at our current mix of (Aussie) Super coaches, I think whilst they’re inexperienced at that level, what we’ve found through all the profiling work we’ve done is the capability of that group is really exciting.”
Australian media claim that Jones expressed that interest of returning to Australia to at least one member of RA’s board, but, failing to gain sufficient traction, decided to extend his contract with England worth a reported £700,000 a year.
Jones wants to make England the No1 team and World Cup winners next year and said after agreeing to extend his contract; “Coaching England is a dream job for me, and I was delighted to be asked to stay on after Rugby World Cup 2019. I have been completely focused on developing a team capable of being the number one rugby team in the world and winning the World Cup in 2019.
“I never take my role as England head coach for granted and did not presume I would be asked to stay on, but, once the conversations started very recently, it was not a difficult decision to make.”
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