No wonder Eddie Jones had been coy about his next destination. The revelation late on Sunday night that he had struck a five-year deal to coach the Wallabies again rumbled through the rugby world like thunder. Instead of settling for some lavishly-paid sinecure in the United States, as was his prerogative aged 62, he detonated a bomb under the Rugby Football Union with the news he was going home, a mere 40 days after his defenestration at Twickenham.
The nightmare for England might only just be beginning. On October 20, the newly-ensconced Steve Borthwick could face off against his old mentor in a World Cup quarter-final in Paris. Should both England and Australia finish top of their pools, it is possible they will meet in the mother of all finals two weeks later. Be in no doubt that Jones has circled those dates in his diary already. For if there is one constant in his career, it is that he loves nothing better than to rub his tormentors’ faces in the dirt.
You can just imagine the headlines running through Jones’ mind as he contemplates this deliciously unexpected reunion. “Bill Sweeney, Conor O’Shea, Sir Clive Woodward…your boys took one hell of a beating.” One moment, he is scuttling away from the England job in high dudgeon, offering no explanation for his sacking besides shouting through the taxi window: “Ask the RFU.” The next, he is handed a chance to deliver the last laugh in spectacular style.
Jones had every reason to suspect his time presiding over Tier One nations had ended on that bleak Tuesday morning in southwest London. But it turned out to be a mere hiatus, one that did not even last six weeks. The statement that emerged from Rugby Australia headquarters in Sydney could hardly have been more gushing. “It is a major coup for Australian rugby to have the best coach in the world return home,” said chief executive Hamish McLennan. “We did not want to wait.”
Jones is seldom more dangerous than when he makes it personal
Where the RFU cast Jones adrift just nine months before the World Cup, their would-be opponents Down Under pounced on his availability in a heartbeat. It is a reflection both of his polarising nature and of the risk involved in jettisoning him so close to the tournament where he comes alive. While England head to France under a rookie head coach, Australia now do so with a man who has reached two World Cup finals in the role.
The speed with which the Wallabies have acted, kicking Dave Rennie into touch with immediate effect, shows how highly Jones is still valued outside England. Time has healed from his tempestuous first period in charge, when he would exhaust his assistants with his relentless demands. Rugby Australia are not spooked by his alarming rate of staff turnover with England, seeing only a leader who has become a true World Cup obsessive, consumed by his desire to capture the one trophy that has eluded him.
In France this autumn, he could have no more glorious invitation to bring his rugby story to its ultimate fruition. He can cock a snook at the RFU, showing them the downside of letting him go. He can reclaim bragging rights over his old nemesis Woodward, two decades after Jonny Wilkinson’s drop goal consigned him to years of if-onlys. There are so many loose ends that he can tie up, so long as he proves he has learned from his mistakes.
Jones is seldom more dangerous than when he makes it personal. He showed as much in that World Cup semi-final against New Zealand in 2019, deciding he had endured enough Kiwi smugness and priming his players to deliver when it mattered most. But even that thunderous occasion in Yokohama would be eclipsed by England versus Australia at the Stade de France. For Jones, it would not just be a match to purge the agonies of the past, but one to demonstrate that he is not the coach his implacable English detractors made him out to be. Homecomings do not come any more piquant, or more laced with intrigue. For the RFU, it could yet be a hellish reminder of what they have lost.
Eddie Jones poised to give England a hellish reminder of what they've lost
When Jones was cut adrift by England just months before the World Cup, his native country pounced on the opportunity