Whither Eddie Jones

Eddie Jones and Rugby Australia have taken the first steps towards formally negotiating an exit for the embattled Wallabies coach after a disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign.

In a major development just nine months after he was appointed Wallabies coach on a five-year deal, Jones and his representatives this week advised Rugby Australia they were open to striking a deal for him to leave.

Movement on Jones’ future emerged as former Wallabies captain Michael Hooper prepared to fly to Wales on Sunday, where he is due to play under Jones in a Barbarians invitational side only days after the Wallabies coach told the Herald he’d left Hooper out of his World Cup squad because he wasn’t a good role model for the team.

Jones flew to London this week to help incoming All Blacks coach Scott Robertson coach the Barbarians against Wales in Cardiff on November 4.
Before his departure from Sydney, however, legal representatives of Jones sent a letter to RA expressing a willingness to discuss a mutual end to his time as Wallabies coach, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation who are unable to comment due to the confidential nature of the letter.
RA chairman Hamish McLennan and chief executive officer Phil Waugh received the letter, which was sent on Wednesday, and discussions with Jones about his future could begin as early as next week.

Waugh and Jones both declined to comment.

The Herald last month revealed Jones had participated in a Zoom interview for the Japan head coaching role just days before the Rugby World Cup began in France. Despite repeated denials, this masthead and other news outlets have reported that plans were underway for a second interview with the JRFU in November. Jones, who last week denied he was doing a second interview, told Herald columnist Peter FitzSimons in an interview published on Friday that he was due to be holidaying in Japan with his wife in November.

Jones oversaw the Wallabies’ worst World Cup campaign in history in France, where the men in gold failed to make it out of the pool stages.

A Wallabies source, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly, said the working relationship between Jones and the RA leadership had grown increasingly strained and the prospect of the Wallabies coach carrying on business as usual in 2024 was unlikely.

In the interview with FitzSimons, Jones said his relationship with McLennan and Waugh was “good enough”. “But there’s two parts to being committed,” he continued. “There’s me being committed and there’s them being committed to make the changes. And I think they are, but Australia’s a difficult environment right now, how antiquated we are in our thinking and the way we do things, and we’re still so territorial.”

Rugby Australia now faces a decision about how it wants to progress with Jones, given a negotiated exit would almost certainly involve compensation as he is contracted through to 2027.

Sources with knowledge of Jones’s contract have told this masthead that if RA parted ways with the coach in the first quarter of next year, it would carry a smaller financial cost. There are exit clauses in Jones’s deal that pertain to RA’s pursuit of private equity and a centralised governance model, according to sources with direct knowledge of the contract, speaking anonymously due to the confidential nature of the contract.

Almost all the Wallabies staff who worked with Jones at the Rugby World Cup have not had their contracts renewed for next year. Most were on one-year deals.

Wallabies general manager Chris Webb has also departed after his four-year contract expired. Webb served in the role with Dave Rennie before re-uniting with Jones, who he’d worked with at the Wallabies in 2003. Waugh was keen to retain Webb but the experienced administrator elected to finish up.
Meanwhile, Jones and Hooper are set for an awkward reunion next week in Cardiff, when the pair will both be involved in a Barbarians game against Wales.
Hooper is one of several Australian players involved in the November 4 game, which is a testimonial for Wales veteran Alun Wyn-Jones. Taniela Tupou, Rob Leota, Angus Bell and Rob Valetini are also playing.

Hooper was controversially left out of the Wallabies’ World Cup squad by Jones, along with experienced stars Bernard Foley and Quade Cooper. It proved costly for the inexperienced Wallabies but Jones doubled down in the interview with FitzSimons.

“The situation reminded me of when Wayne Bennett let Wally Lewis go. No one could quite understand why, but Wally Lewis wasn’t a great role model for the rest of the team. And for those guys, I don’t think they were the right role models for the team going forward,” Jones said.

“Don’t get me wrong. They’re not bad guys. But you need guys – particularly when you’ve got a team like Australia has at the moment – you need guys who are obsessed with winning, obsessed with being good, and those three are past those stages.”

RDW wrote:As am honorary Wallabies fan I can say with certainty that Jones need to go.

Rugby Fan wrote:

RDW wrote:As am honorary Wallabies fan I can say with certainty that Jones need to go.

I have a bit of sympathy for him on the direct charge. The Australian press started claiming Japanese media had reported Jones was confirmed for the Japan job. That was never true, as anyone with basic Japanese reading comprehension could have told them. One, gossipy, title had mentioned Jones, and only to say someone like him would be the JRFU's top choice.

There are other reasons to want him gone but the idea he was on the verge of abandoning Australia for Japan was never fully grounded. Mind you, I don't doubt he's maintained contact with the JRFU, and it is certainly possible he would turn up there if the ARU decides he has become too toxic. Going forward, the biggest issue for Jones is finding people who will work with him. There will always be new coaches who fancy an international stint on their CV. Whether he can get them to stay, is the problem.

RDW wrote:You hope for the sake of the Lions series that they turn things round quickly - a one sided Lions series where they romp to victory every game will be a big let down. They'll still sell the tickets though which is most important for the Lions...

I genuinely believe the Wallabies have the players to be a top 6 time - they've beaten most teams in the last few years, just not with any consistently - but really need to get their sh!t together quickly.

After the circus show that was Eddie's reign they surely need to get a much less controversial character and the players respect and want to play for. Who was that previous guy they had again...

RDW wrote:Jones has resigned!

Whatever you think about the Wallabies issues, there's no doubt this has been an absolute shambles

mikey_dragon wrote:

RDW wrote:Jones has resigned!

Whatever you think about the Wallabies issues, there's no doubt this has been an absolute shambles

Yep and the fans aren't the least bit pleased with the ARU.

RDW wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

RDW wrote:Jones has resigned!

Whatever you think about the Wallabies issues, there's no doubt this has been an absolute shambles

Yep and the fans aren't the least bit pleased with the ARU.

Understandable - those who saw fit to sack Rennie and then make things a whole lot worse have to shoulder responsibility here.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

RDW wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

RDW wrote:Jones has resigned!

Whatever you think about the Wallabies issues, there's no doubt this has been an absolute shambles

Yep and the fans aren't the least bit pleased with the ARU.

Understandable - those who saw fit to sack Rennie and then make things a whole lot worse have to shoulder responsibility here.

Dan McKellar was asked after the Tigers game on Saturday (before Eddie resigned) about the state of Aussie Rugby and he said it pained him and said the treatment of Rennie was one of the reasons he took a job abroad.

I expect some of the ARU management are going to come under a lot of pressure as I doubt many coaches will have been watching the goings on and thinking "that's an environment I want to be in".

doctor_grey wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

RDW wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:

RDW wrote:Jones has resigned!

Whatever you think about the Wallabies issues, there's no doubt this has been an absolute shambles

Yep and the fans aren't the least bit pleased with the ARU.

Understandable - those who saw fit to sack Rennie and then make things a whole lot worse have to shoulder responsibility here.

Dan McKellar was asked after the Tigers game on Saturday (before Eddie resigned) about the state of Aussie Rugby and he said it pained him and said the treatment of Rennie was one of the reasons he took a job abroad.

I expect some of the ARU management are going to come under a lot of pressure as I doubt many coaches will have been watching the goings on and thinking "that's an environment I want to be in".

I guess this is the problem with a turnaround - how to attract good people to fix a problem if the problem is people?

RDW wrote:This is a good article

https://rugbynews.net.au/weve-hit-rock-bottom-where-to-from-here-for-australian-rugby/?fbclid=IwAR1Sb09DOcyRpS5H52La-HFMwt1T-G7_wCpdvKdDt0GqDyiofv3dwwiv6jg

Hamish McLennan is no longer the chairman of Rugby Australia after he was ousted in a late night board meeting and resigned as a director.

Rugby Australia’s board met four times over the weekend after some of the organisation’s most powerful stakeholders went public with their demand for Mr McLennan, who is also the chairman of REA Group, to resign.

Mr McLennan had earlier told The Australian Financial Review that he would not step down even as several states including Queensland prepared to call an extraordinary general meeting and have him dismissed over his direction and leadership of the game.

“As Tom Petty famously sung, I won’t back down,” Mr McLennan said on Sunday. “This is a classic case of the tail wagging the dog.”

On Sunday evening, Mr McLennan confirmed he has resigned from the board of directors after losing the chairmanship.

Former Wallaby Dan Herbert has been elected chairman.

In a statement, he said it had “never been more important for the Rugby Australia board, working with member unions, to come together and execute the reform we absolutely need”.

The stand-off over Mr McLennan’s position had escalated existing tensions between the state unions, sponsors, and executives, and threatened to further draw out an already long dispute over the future of the game.

The unions and Super Rugby clubs from Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and the ACT wrote to Mr McLennan on Friday and had initially given him until Saturday afternoon to consider his position (it was later extended to Sunday).

Their letter, which has since been made public, said the move was to do with Mr McLennan’s cultural fit rather than Rugby Australia’s plans to create a united high-performance structure and take control of their commercial decisions.

“We no longer have any trust or faith in his leadership, or the direction in which he is taking rugby in Australia,” the letter reads. “His decisions and ‘captain’s picks’ have directly led to a historic failure at the men’s Rugby World Cup and a Wallabies international ranking at a historic low, with all the regrettable and public fallout that came with it.”

Rugby Australia is overseen by a board of directors, but is owned by state and territory rugby unions, the owners of the Super Rugby bodies and the Rugby Union Players’ Association.

The board of directors includes former rugby players Joe Roff and Daniel Herbert, Virgin Australia co-founder Brett Godfrey, Barrenjoey’s head of corporate finance, Matt Hanning, former Salesforce chief executive Pip Marlow and non-executive directors Dr Jane Wilson and Karen Penrose. Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh also sits on the board.

Sources familiar with the position of the directors, who weren’t authorised to speak publicly, had said that there were divisions over whether to back Mr McLennan in light of the concerns of some shareholders.

Australian rugby descended into turmoil after the Wallabies failed to reach the knockout stage in the Rugby World Cup and coach Eddie Jones was reported to be flirting with a return to Japan. Jones has since resigned from his position – less than 10 months into a five-year contract.

Much of the fallout since has focused on the appointment of Mr Jones by the Rugby Australia board and Mr McLennan. It has also culminated in discussions about a new operating model, which would see high-performance coaches and training nationalised and Super Rugby clubs handing over their commercial functions to Rugby Australia.

While the clubs are supportive of a national high-performance division, there are disputes over the handling of money by Rugby Australia. At the same time, it has abandoned plans to inject $250 million in private equity in favour of a new $60 million loan. The loan has not yet been secured.

Mr McLennan had earlier urged ACT and Queensland rugby union members to call their own extraordinary general meetings and oust their own chairmen, on the grounds they had instigated a fight with him.

“They didn’t have the good grace to include NSW, Victoria and The [Western] Force in their secret discussions,” he said. “These are the same people who have told RA board members they have a coordinated campaign to discredit me if I don’t resign.”

On Saturday, Andrew and Nicola Forrest, who own the Western Force, and Melbourne Rebels chairman, Paul Docherty, came out supporting Mr McLennan. “We can’t land years of problems at the feet of one person. We are all custodians of the game for a short time, and our goal should be to come together, not to create more division,” Mr Docherty said.

The Forrests said Mr McLennan was steering rugby through a “difficult period”. “Now is not the time for more disruption in the sport, but a time for rugby to band together and back the proposed centralisation reforms,” they said in a joint statement on Saturday.

NSW Rugby, which was not consulted by other unions and last week agreed to hand over all corporate and performance functions to Rugby Australia, has yet to outline its position on Mr McLennan’s position.

This public fight could not come at a worse time for Rugby Australia which is in the middle of an independent review into what went wrong at the World Cup and has already made headlines for poor performance and the way it spends its money.

The review, led by former Wallaby Justin Harrison, is expected to assess everything from coaching and player performance to costs and corporate hospitality. Rugby sources previously told this masthead that Jones, at the very least, had blown his budget.