Eddie Jones wants to smooth out the rough edges of his Wallabies story. But some spiky parts won’t budge
Eddie Jones is fond of drawing from left-field sources, so he’d probably already know the quote of Indian author Shiv Khera: “Ninety per cent of selling is conviction and 10 per cent is persuasion.”
He may have his own percentage split, but conviction and persuasion are the stock-in-trade of Jones the rugby coach.
You’ll remember Jones the salesman. For the first half of 2023, Jones had Australian rugby officials, players and fans buying what he was selling about the “smash and grab” job they were about to pull off at the Rugby World Cup. In the end, the Wallabies were smashed and the only grabbing was done by Jones – on to the lifeline dangled by a Japanese Rugby Union rescue chopper.
The chaos of 2023 has been followed by half of a year of peace and quiet, but Jones the salesman has now returned. And a new pitch is in full swing.
Now the head coach of Japan, Jones is back in the news via a round of interviews ahead of his first Test match, against England in Tokyo on Saturday. After the media cyclone that surrounded the end of his Wallabies tenure, Jones is back in his element. In control, engaging and selling his narrative with conviction and persuasion.
But not necessarily with accuracy and honesty – at least when it comes to the 2024 version of his exit from Australian rugby.
Eddie Jones ended a turbulent year as new coach of Japan.Credit: Viola Kam
Jones explains away his resignation, 11 months into a five-year contract, as the consequence of Rugby Australia failing to meet contractual conditions about funding and his plans for a new high-performance system. If not done by a certain date, Jones claimed, his contract was........
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