Whether you love or hate Eddie Jones, you have to respect him. He has been instrumental in so many teams to take them to a whole new level
Eddie played club rugby at Randwick Rugby Club from 1981 to 1991 with a massive 210 appearances!
He had a short stint at Leicester Tigers in 1991/1992 and New South Wales from 1987 – 1989.
Since 1994 he has however been a very active coach. He coached Randwick, Tokai University, Suntory Sungoliath, the ACT Brumbies, Queensland Reds and Saracens. During this time he acted as either coach, assistant coach, or technical advisor.
In 2001 he got his first taste of international coaching when he coached Australia until 2005. He had a 33/59 record (56% win record). He won a Bledisloe Cup and drew one. He got to the 2003 World Cup final where a rampant Jonny Wilkinson led England to the victory.
In 2007 he was the technical advisor to the Springboks and picked up a Rugby World Cup winners medal in the process!
While coaching Japan from 2012 to 2015, he transformed the team and they caused a shock upset at the 2015 World Cup by beating South Africa. Japan had a 32/45 (71% wins) record during that time.
After the World Cup, he took over a broken England team. England were knocked out of that World Cup, that they hosted, in the pool stages! In the time that Eddie coached England from 2015 to 2022, he won 3 x 6 Nations tournaments (2016, 2017, and 2020) with a Grand Slam in 2016. At the 2019 World Cup, he steered the England team to the World Cup final where they met a rampant South Africa team who beat them on the day.
After taking over at Australia earlier in 2023 he hasn’t had the best run but he is a genius and if anyone can get this team up to a competitive level, he can.
He has also now gotten in the services of the formidable Steve Hansen and that sounds like one of the most deadly coaching combos you will find in World Rugby!