Japan boss Eddie Jones claimed that “some clown abused me” on his Twickenham return and also sarcastically suggested you could read his thoughts on Danny Care’s recent allegations about his time in charge of England in an upcoming book called Caring about Care.
Jones was in typically combative form in an entertaining press conference despite his side slipping to a 59-14 defeat as England ended a frustrating Autumn Nations Series on a high.
It took the Australian precisely one question to take his customary shot at the assembled press, setting the tone for what was to come.
“Congratulations to England and to Steve [Borthwick],” said Jones in his opening answer. “I’m glad he won’t have you blokes [the assembled media] hounding him for at least seven days. I’m sure he’ll enjoy his orange juice tonight.”
When asked how he found returning to Allianz Stadium Twickenham for the first time since being sacked two years ago, Jones revealed that the experience hadn’t been entirely pleasant.
“It wasn’t bad until some clown abused me going down at half-time,” he said. “But if there is only one clown in 81,634, it’s not too bad. So it was good mate. I’m disappointed with the result but it is always good to come to the Home of Rugby. A fantastic atmosphere.
“He [the clown] said something, obviously, but I’m not going to repeat it here because I’ll get into trouble.”
In response to Jones’s claims, the RFU released a short statement saying: “No coaches, players or match officials should be abused for doing their job.”
Jones hadn’t been put up for press all week ahead of the game, with one remote Zoom session scheduled for Friday evening before that was cancelled at short notice, with the Japanese RFU saying the head coach was ill.
It meant that this post-match press conference was the first opportunity for journalists to question the 64-year-old about comments made by ex-England scrum half Care in his recent memoir Everything Happens for a Reason.
Extracts were serialised in The Times as Care spoke about the toxic culture that existed under Jones, as he compared the coach to a school bully.
Care claimed that “everyone was bloody terrified of him” and described the England environment as “like living in a dictatorship, under a despot who disappeared people”.
Jones was typically fiery when questioned about these claims, launching into a sarcastic rant that included him pretending that he would be writing his own tell-all memoir to address the complaints.
“I’ll tell you mate, I’ve got a new book deal coming out,” deadpanned Jones. “I signed it today. It’s called Caring about Care – there’ll be all the details in there.
“I’ve got pre-order forms. I’m trying to get a deal with the Daily Mail, but I haven’t got an agreement yet. So if you want to read about it, there you go. It’ll be a good one.
“If you want to read about it, it’ll be in my book. That’s how you get headlines. I’ll put a whole chapter about caring about Care, just for you.”
Regarding on-field matters, Jones was full of priase for England, who had suffered five defeats in a row, most by just a single score, before opening up and teaching Japan a lesson in their Autumn Nations Series finale.
“It’s one of those difficult periods where a team is obviously going through transition,” Jones said of Borthwick’s England. “You’ve got some young guys coming through. Chandler Cunningham-South looks a prospect. [Tommy] Freeman is starting to come through, [Tom] Roebuck is starting to come through. Ollie Lawrence is getting some consistency in his play.
“It’s the melding of teams. You always get that sticky period where in the big games it doesn’t quite work, you get beaten by a point or two points or a penalty. I think they’re going in the right direction.
“Today, they gave a lesson in pressure rugby. We got suffocated today. They played really well. Knowing Steve fairly well, that’s how he wants to play. It’ll take time but I think they are going in the right direction.”
