SBW slams "lying" Eddie Jones

Former All Blacks centre Sonny Bill Williams says he feels sorry for the Japan rugby team after confirming Eddie Jones as their new coach up until the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

The former Wallabies coach was unveiled as the Brave Blossoms’ coach in a press conference at a Tokyo hotel overnight.

It was first reported in September that Jones had been interviewed by the Japanese Rugby Football Union (JRFU) in August, two days before the Wallabies’ World Cup warm-up test against France.

The Wallabies then endured a historically poor Cup campaign, bounced out before the quarter-finals for the first time.

Jones has continuously denied that the August interview took place, and doubled down again when pressed on Thursday, saying the first and only interview occurred this month.

Williams, a two-time World Cup winner, says he believes Jones lied to his players.

“It’s quite sad, isn’t it? My thoughts on this whole saga is that he lied,” Williams told Nine’s Wide World of Sports.

“Obviously he lied to the players, he lied to the public, he lied to the Australian rugby union. What a disgrace. I guess that’s my first point.

“Second point would be, I feel sorry for Japan. His track record speaks for itself. I’m a big believer in the proof is in the pudding and what is his proof? His proof is he’s been fired, sacked from England in the last few years. He’s burned a lot of bridges.

“I actually feel sorry for Japan that they believe this guy is gonna take them somewhere where his track record shows that he hasn’t been able to do. It seems like he’s a little bit out of touch with what’s going on.

“I guess I’m just speaking from an ex-player’s point of view. I could never believe in someone that I knew was pretty much full of crap. Japanese culture is all built on respect, loyalty, things that he’s shown that he’s not about.

“If it wasn’t for the captain’s call, the great captain’s call that it was, he might not even have had a job before Australia’s disastrous World Cup.”

Jones said in a press conference overnight his Wallabies exit to join Japan sits well with him, maintaining he hadn’t been in talks for the job until after Australia’s failed World Cup campaign.

Sitting alongside Jones, JRFU president Masato Tsuchida interjected to explain that a recruitment agency representing the organisation had initially contacted Jones, but only to ask for his advice on filling the vacancy left by Jamie Joseph.

”I didn’t do an interview before the World Cup,” Jones said.”I was asked by the recruitment agency to share my experiences with them on Japan.

”Some people might have construed that as an interview, it certainly wasn’t an interview.”

Jones said he doesn’t feel “any guilt” and that he left because Rugby Australia couldn’t accommodate his needs.

”Apologise to Australian fans? Mate, yep, I gave everything I could in that short period of time and it wasn’t good enough,” said the 63-year-old, whose mother and wife are Japanese.

”I had a plan of what we needed to do to change Australian rugby. We weren’t able to do that, Rugby Australia weren’t able to support that.

”I decided to move on and I wish Australia all the best.

”I feel terrible about the results of Australia - I wanted to go back and change Australia.

”But I don’t feel any guilt at all about this process.”

It will be the second time Jones has taken charge of the Brave Blossoms, following a three-year posting from 2012 highlighted by a shock World Cup defeat of South Africa.

Axed as England coach in December, Jones was quickly snapped up by Australia at Dave Rennie’s expense.

But that long-term deal lasted just nine months, the circumstances around Jones’s exit causing uproar in rugby circles and contributing to the ousting of Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McClennan.

”Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I can’t control their opinion,” Jones said of the backlash in Australia.

”The only thing I can control is what I did, and it sits well with me mate, I don’t have a problem with it.”

Jones said his aim was to make Japan a top-four rugby nation, while forging a “real identity” and a team that has “a point of difference.”

”I feel how important rugby is to Japanese society now,” the 63-year-old said. “When I coached Japan in 2015, we hadn’t won a game in 24 years at the World Cup, and it wasn’t a team the Japanese public loved.

”Now we have a team the public love, rugby is a major player in society, and to be part of the push for Japan to be in the top eight, top four in the world is an exciting opportunity. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into it.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission