It was like he dropped out of heaven: Rugby boss on Jones signing

Just minutes into his new role as Rugby Australia boss, Hamish McLennan declared: ‘We have to get Eddie back.’

Eddie Jones has signed a five-year deal to coach the Wallabies. Picture: Getty Images.

There were six words Hamish McLennan uttered just minutes into his new role as chairman of Rugby Australia; ‘‘we have to get Eddie back”.

Thirty-two months on, hours of talks, three meetings (one dinner in London, another dinner at McLennan’s Sydney home, then lunch at a sandwich shop outside of London) and at 11.30pm last Saturday night, the deal with the “mercurial” Eddie Jones was done.

The legendary coach signed a five-year multimillion-dollar contract with the hope of bringing home the rugby World Cup from France this year. And in a historic first, Jones will coach both the Wallabies and the Australian women’s national team, the Wallaroos.

Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan. Picture: Stuart Walmsley / Rugby Australia

Initially, with Jones firmly tied to England for the 2023 World Cup, where he had been the most successful coach in its history, Australia was only looking to secure his coaching services from 2024 and beyond.

The first informal meeting between McLennan and Jones happened in November 2021, RA chief executive Andy Marinos connected the three of them, and they met at the end of the Spring Tour at a restaurant in Richmond, London.

“At that time we were very committed to Dave Rennie coaching at the World Cup, but we were trying to find out where Eddie’s head was from 2024 onwards, so it all started then,” McLennan said.

After England played Australia at the SCG in July 2022, the trio gathered again, behind closed doors. This time it was at McLennan’s home over Portuguese roast chicken and salad (cooked up by McLennan’s wife Lucinda) that Marinos, Jones and McLennan started talking further about 2024 and beyond.

“After the England series he came over to my place,” McLennan said.

“There, the three of us just covered a lot of ground over dinner. We talked a lot about rugby. About business, what we do, what we wanted to do. Then we raised 2024 with Eddie again and he said he was thinking about his future.”

It was November 2022 when McLennan and Marinos’ thinking radically changed. With Rennie‘s record at just 38 per cent and his relationship with his bosses at a low, McLennan saw the opportunity to “bring back Eddie” — sooner rather than later.

On December 6, after seven years at the helm of the England team, Jones was sensationally sacked by the RFU — and that simply changed everything.

“We had stumbled through the spring tour and then when England cut him, it was like he dropped out of heaven,” McLennan said.

“We couldn’t believe it and you’ve got to pounce on opportunities like these.

“That’s when all the discussions accelerated.”

The 2024 ‘bring back Eddie’ plan was nuked. It became 2023 or bust. Jones’ winning record of 73 per cent is the best by any England coach, better than the celebrated coach and his most ardent critic Sir Clive Woodward (71 per cent).

Jones had led England to 18 straight wins, which is the world record for a tier 1 rugby country. He steered England to win three Six Nations tournaments, one grand slam and took it to the 2019 World Cup final in Japan.

McLennan thinks he is a perfect fit.

What he really likes is Jones’ attitude, the “junkyard dog” mentality, and the fact he’ll no doubt want retribution on the country that let him go.

“There’s a bit of genius about Eddie,” McLennan said.

“Coaches like him are mercurial and have to be managed in a different way. But all the good ones, all the talented ones, aren’t completely normal.”

Axed Wallabies coach Dave Rennie. Picture: Getty Images

Jones has a character that’s been described as prickly (he once said in an interview “my greatest weakness is I can’t tolerate people”) but his brilliance can’t be ignored. McLennan likes “prickly” types.

“That’s quite normal, to me, for exceptionally talented people to be this way,” he said.

“I like the way he thinks. He has this intense, slightly feral Australian characteristic.”

While Jones may have signed the contract on Saturday night, McLennan said that nothing was officially done until Sunday morning. It was then that he realised that the contract Jones wasn’t official until he counter-signed it, and for that he had to have his own signature witnessed on it.

Down at his farm, near Berry, McLennan woke his wife Lucinda, who signed off the next Wallabies coach’s contract (in her pyjamas). “It was a pretty funny turn of events,” McLennan said.

McLennan believes that Jones has the ability to lead a revival, well into the 2027 World Cup on home soil and beyond.

“He’s an Aussie and he wants to win a World Cup,” McLennan said. “He’ll change the system to get the Wallabies in the World Cup where they need to be.’’