Rassie Erasmus set Eddie Jones on the path to England
How a decision by rival coach Rassie Erasmus put Eddie Jones on the path to the World Cup final for England.
As Australia weigh up whether Eddie Jones has become more desirable to recruit, not less as a result of England’s demise in the World Cup final, it transpires that the man who set him on the path to last Saturday’s showdown with South Africa was none other than Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus.
Jones was axed from the Wallabies coaching job at the end of the 2005 spring tour of Europe as his losing streak blew out to eight defeats out of nine. He spent the following year acting as a consultant to Saracens but in 2007, eyes seemingly fixed on the prize of winning back the Australian coaching position again, he took over as coach of the Reds. That started off well, with a 25-16 win over the Hurricanes but then the season descended into oblivion as Queensland lost 11 of their next 12 games, winding up the season with by far the biggest loss in their history, 92-3 to the Bulls.
By mutual agreement, he and the Reds parted company, with Jones securing the job as Saracens coach. But there was a detour on his way to England, with his old adversary, Springbok coach Jake White deciding to invite him to Cape Town to run his eye over South Africa’s preparations for the 2007 World Cup.
“I reckoned that even if his schedule allowed only two sessions at our training base in Cape Town, he’d add value because of his vast coaching experience,” White later wrote in his autobiography. As it happens, Jones indicated he could stay for a week.
“He took existing ideas and put a different spin on them. It was a fresh approach and I could see the guys responding to him very positively.”
Unbeknown to White, his technical adviser — Erasmus — had applied for and been appointed Stormers’ Super Rugby coach for 2008. That left White annoyed. “My irritation wasn’t directed at him specifically, because I realised the Western Province and Stormers job was a great opportunity professionally. I was angry because when I looked around for possible candidates to take his place, there were no obvious South African replacements.”
But then he realised there was an Australian option sitting right on his doorstep. He asked Jones if he was prepared to stay on with the Boks until the end of the World Cup and he jumped at the chance. Saracens, whose chief executive was Jones’s former boss at the Brumbies and the Western Force’s future CEO, Mark Sinderberry, proved very accommodating and so the deal was done.
The Boks, history records, went on to win the World Cup that year — beating England in the final, ironically — and Jones’s status as a coach soared on the strength of it. He stayed two years with Saracens before moving to Japan as coach of the Suntory Sungoliaths.
And in turn he became coach of Japan’s Brave Blossoms in the lead-up to the 2015 World Cup.
Under him Japan won their first ever Test against Wales, beating the current Six Nations champions 23-8, but when he suffered a stroke in October 2013, he temporarily handed the reins over to Scott Wisemantel, the fellow Australian coach who in time became his assistant at England.
As soon as he realised that the Springboks would be Japan’s main rival in the pool rounds in 2015, Jones began drilling the Brave Blossoms in what was required to beat them, rehearsing play after play until it all became second nature to them.
What followed was the Miracle of Brighton, where Japan scored the greatest upset in rugby history, beating South Africa 34-32 at the 2015 World Cup in England.
Even though Japan won three pool games, they did not make it through to the knockout rounds but that triumph alone was all that was needed to entice England to sign Jones as their head coach through to the 2019 World Cup and beyond.
The defeat to the Springboks in the World Cup final leaves Jones on a winning rate of 78 per cent with England. That makes him the fifth most successful coach in the history of the professional game behind former All Blacks mentors Steve Hansen (86.9), Graham Henry (85) and John Mitchell (82) and Wallabies’ World Cup-winning coach Rod Macqueen (79).
With Jones insisting that all he wants is a few beers … and then a few more … before he even turns his mind to his future, it is difficult to say how we will respond to his second World Cup final defeat.
On one hand, it could reduce Australia’s chances if he decides to recommit to England, with whom he is signed until 2021. Conversely, it might persuade the Rugby Football Union to look elsewhere, which could make Jones more available.
That said, it would be out of character for the RFU to let him go without demanding that his contract be paid out. So when Wallabies Tim Horan and Stephen Hoiles call on Rugby Australia to “break the bank” if necessary to bring Jones back home, that might be exactly what they would need to do.
However it pans out, it all stems from Erasmus pursuing his own dream, the one that led him to the Webb Ellis Cup on Saturday night in Yokohama.
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