Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh still yet to confirm Eddie Jones’ links to Japan job

Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh admits that he is yet to call his Japanese counterparts to check on reports of Eddie Jones’ ‘disloyal’ job application with the Cherry Blossoms.

(L-R) Eddie Jones, Phil Waugh.

Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh still hasn’t called his Japanese counterparts to check if Eddie Jones has been in talks to take over as their head coach but if he has it would be “disloyal” and have contributed to the Wallabies’ failure at the World Cup.

Addressing Jones’s links to Japan for the first time since Australia was bundled out of the World Cup in France in the pool stages, Waugh said if Jones has lied to him and the public about interviewing for the Japan job weeks before the tournament, it would be “very, very disappointing”.

Asked by 2GB radio host Chris O’Keefe if such an interview with Japan – if proven true – would be “disloyal” to Australia, Waugh said: “Anyone of a reasonable mind would say that if those conversations did occur going into a World Cup, then I think that would be an appropriate assumption.

“It’s not a big call. It would be fair to say if those conversations were occurring in the middle of a World Cup campaign for Australia, at a World Cup we were going to win, it would be disappointing.”

Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh. Picture: AFP

Remarkably, Waugh said he hadn’t phoned Japan to double check what is the most contentious coaching contractual saga in Australian rugby history.

“Eddie has said to me that he hasn’t had that, and he’s said that to me a number of times. I’ll take him at his word,” Waugh said.

“It’s not my responsibility to speculate or go and talk to the Japanese Rugby Football Union and ask them whether they have met with Eddie.

“He’s said ‘no’. One would be very disappointed if he had, given the stage we were at going into the World Cup, and I think as we go forward that will become clear.

“I could spend a lot of time calling around different people and asking them who is having conversations with who … I’ve had conversations with Eddie.

Eddie Jones speaks to media to address reports of a rumoured shift to Japan. Picture: AFP

“Our focus was to perform the best we could at the World Cup and we clearly didn’t do that.

“Our starting position is that we went into this World Cup wanting to win 2023, not to set ourselves up for 2027, and clearly it was a disappointment.”

Jones signed a $5 million deal in January to take over as Wallabies coach until the end of 2027.

While he again denied on Tuesday that he was in talks with the JRFU for its top job, Japanese media outlet Sponichi reported on Wednesday that Jones, All Blacks assistant Scott McLeod and South African Frans Ludeke were now the final three candidates.

“He (McLeod) is expected to be interviewed by the Japan (Rugby Football Union) in November and it looks like a three-way tie with fellow finalists Eddie Jones of Australia and Frans Ludeke of Tokyo Bay,” Sponichi wrote.

“Mr Jones, who has an outstanding track record, Mr Ludeke, who is good at developing young players and building teams, or Mr McLeod? The selection of the next HC (head coach) is approaching its final phase.”

Waugh said if it was true that Jones had had an interview for the job a fortnight before the Wallabies played their opening World Cup match against Georgia: “If that becomes evident, then clearly that would be very, very disappointing.”

But it’s understood there are no clauses in Jones’s contract that would trigger termination if he had had an interview for another job.

“Contracts are interesting,” Waugh said.

“I’m not going to get into the legalities of what’s written in the contract.”

RA will start an independent review early next month to look at all aspects of the embarrassing World Cup campaign and Waugh said a decision would be taken based on the report.

“A lot of speculation, it’s all still pretty raw in terms of the results,” Waugh said. “No one is more disappointed than those close to the environment and we know we’ve left Australian supporters – and not just rugby supporters but Australians all over Australia and the world – disappointed with our performance.

“We’ll work through the assessment of the campaign and there will be recommendations that come from that and we have to act on those.”

Jones was unperturbed by the ongoing saga. He had lunch with World Cup assistant coach Jason Ryles and former Wallaby Rod Kafer, who is among the candidates for a new RA high-performance manager role, in Coogee on Wednesday.

Originally published as Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh still yet to confirm Eddie Jones’ links to Japan job