Rugby Australia boss Phil Waugh says the “integrity” of the Wallabies should be protected and refused to be drawn on former coach Eddie Jones’ repeated denials about interviewing for Japan’s head teaching function together with his appointment now imminent.
Jones. whose disastrous second stint as Wallabies coach ended final month after lower than a 12 months in cost, is reportedly set to be confirmed as Japan’s coach on Wednesday, pending board approval.
News emerged that Jones had interviewed for the Japan job – which he beforehand held from 2012 to 2015 – whereas teaching the Wallabies through the crew’s humiliating World Cup marketing campaign in September.
It was solely eight months right into a Wallabies teaching contract that wasn’t on account of expire till 2027 and Jones repeatedly denied the interview had taken place, pledging his future to Australian rugby.
However, quickly after arriving house from the World Cup in France, having once more declared he was totally dedicated to the Wallabies, Jones resigned and stated the “whole system” wanted altering after “20 years of unsuccessful rugby”.
He reportedly was interviewed final week for a second time by Japanese rugby officers and did sufficient to safe the job.
When requested on Monday to touch upon Jones’s new job, RA chief govt Waugh stated once more he had taken Jones “at his word” and wouldn’t be drawn on a response past declaring that “ “Eddie finished with Rugby Australia on the 25th of November. We’re moving forward.”
Waugh, who spoke to Jones through the World Cup concerning the matter and was assured there was no reality to the studies, put an emphasis on rugby having “integrity” in maybe a thinly veiled swipe on the former coach.
“We want to be a game of integrity and a team of integrity, and I took Eddie on his word,” he stated
“We’re moving forward and looking forward to 2024.”
Waugh was assured RA would proceed to have relationship with the Japan Rugby Football Union regardless of its questionable poaching of Jones.
“We’ve got a good relationship with all national unions,” Waugh stated.
“We play a lot of Test matches against Japan and we look forward to continuing that strong partnership, so I’m not going to buy into speculation of what may or may have occurred.
“We’re moving forward and look forward to putting all those new (Rugby Australia) appointments in place and building a really strong culture for the Wallabies going forward.”
Waugh hoped to announce a brand new coach of the Australian ladies’s crew, the Wallaroos, this week, forward of the appointment of a brand new director of excessive efficiency and Jones’s substitute as Wallabies coach.
Those reportedly in competition to interchange Jones embody Wallabies nice Stephen Larkham, ex-Wallabies coach Michael Cheika, former All Blacks mentor Ian Foster, Fiji coach Simon Raiwalui and Waratahs mentor Darren Coleman.
Source: www.news.com.au
