Former England boss, now Japan head coach Eddie Jones landed in Dublin and as usual had something to say about meeting Ireland on Saturday at the Aviva Stadium for a lunchtime kick-off.
Jones is still helping his team assimilate their 61-7 defeat to South Africa last weekend at Wembley Stadium. But can they beat Ireland?
“One hundred per cent,” he quipped.
Few expected a different answer. Jones had already made headlines before he and his team arrived at their hotel in Dublin.
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Speaking to Brendan Fanning for his book ‘Touching Distance – Irish Rugby’s Battle with Great Expectations’, Jones said Andy Farrell would be sacked for the same reason he got the job.
Borrowing from a book ‘Quiet Leadership’, written by Carlo Ancelotti, Jones told Fanning that whatever a coach is good at is what gets them the job, and is invariably the reason that gets them sacked.
“And I reckon it’s so true mate,” Jones told Fanning. “Joe (Schmidt) brought detail, he brought precision, he brought a hard work-ethic with players working above and beyond what they would normally do. And like everything, it runs its race.
“For me, and I know publicly his image has been tarnished, but you look at what he did for Ireland rugby and the state he left it in. Now, Andy comes in and he’s a bit freer and he’ll end up getting sacked for that mate. I’m telling you.
Speaking in November 2024, Jones continued: “You can maybe see signs of Ireland getting a bit loose now, looking from afar, that it’s just a little bit too loose now the way they’re playing.”
A little less strident this time around, Jones nonetheless expressed his opinion that Ireland will take some time to get over the retirements of some of significant characters, notably Johnny Sexton and Peter O’Mahony.
Pointing to the potential of Jack Crowley and Sam Prendergast at outhalf, he said the gap left by Sexton has not been filled, adding the current Irish squad misses the reliability of O’Mahony.
“Whenever you’ve had a good run with a number of generational players like Sexton and O’Mahony ... Sexton was one of the best players in the world for a long period of time,” said Jones.
“O’Mahony was probably one of the most reliable Test players. You lose a few of those players and there’s always a little gap in the team because the younger guys come through, they’re not quite there and they can never be like those generational players. And this is the little sticky period that Ireland’s going through.”
Loath to provoke the Irish players too much, and orchestrating a charm offensive with the media for being more pleasant to him now than when he coached England, the 65-year-old praised Farrell’s manner, personality and character but asked what direction he will take Ireland in the post-O’Mahony-and-Sexton years.
“And now is the next turn,” he said. “Now comes the next test. How do you adjust the team again? Because you’ve got a new team you got to create. He’ll be going through that test again and it’ll be a good test for him, but he’ll handle it. As long as you people don’t give him too much of a hard time.”
Contrasting the Ireland of today with the Ireland of years ago, perhaps as far back as his first stint as an assistant coach with Japan in 1996, Jones believes Ireland must accept the changes which need to take place. He has faith that the transition will be strategically negotiated by Farrell and his backroom team.
“You’re still top four in the world,” said Jones. “You know, 20 years ago you came on the Europe tour, and Ireland was the easiest game of the tour. The change in Irish rugby has been extraordinary, I think, absolutely extraordinary.
“So, you’re going through this little difficult period now, which I think you’ve just got to accept, and the young players will come through, but they need time.
“They all need time in the saddle mate. They can’t just hop on the horse and be the most experienced jockey in the world. They need time, they need to learn. They need to experience a bit of pain, and obviously that’s going on at the moment.”
Pointing to the heightened expectations that now surround Ireland, as demonstrated by the reaction following the defeat to the All Blacks, Jones said: “No one in Ireland wants Ireland to lose now, so the expectation is to win every game. When they lose a game, it’s a calamity.
“I’ve been reading The Irish Times every morning. And, you know, it’s a crisis in Irish rugby.”
Come Saturday, if Ireland are beaten by the 13th-ranked team in the world, calamity might accurately describe it.
JAPAN: Yoshitaka Yazaki; Kippei Ishida, Dylan Riley (vice-capt), Charlie Lawrence, Tomoki Osada; Seungsin Lee (vice-capt), Naoto Saito; Kenta Kobayashi, Kenji Sato, Shuhei Takeuchi; Epineri Uluiviti, Warner Dearns (capt); Ben Gunter, Kanji Shimokawa, Faulua Makisi
Replacements: Shodai Hirao, Ryosuke Iwaihara, Keijiro Tamefusa, Jack Cornelsen, Michael Leitch, Shinobu Fujiwara, Shinya Komura, Yuya Hirose
