Japan have expressed confidence Eddie Jones will take his place in the coaching box against England on Sunday in what will be his first return to Twickenham as an international coach after he on Friday night pulled out of his pre-match press conference due to illness.
Jones, who was sacked after seven years as England head coach in December 2022, is said to be “unwell but nothing too serious”. He has come under considerable scrutiny of late after comments made by Danny Care in his autobiography that the Australian oversaw a toxic environment, ran a “dictatorship” and acted like a “despot who disappeared people” by bullying staff members and players.
Shortly after Care’s accusations were made public, Jones claimed to have no knowledge of them, saying: “I haven’t read the book, I haven’t read the comments, so I have no idea what you’re talking about. Apologies.”
Before Jones’s withdrawal from media duties, the Japan Rugby Football Union had already determined that there would be online access to the head coach only and that all questions “need to be related to the member announcement for the weekend game. Unrelated questions could be stopped by a moderator.”
Due to Jones being taken unwell, however, his assistant Neal Hatley stepped in at short notice. “He’ll be [at Twickenham] with bells on. It’s just a precaution, he’ll be there, he’ll be fine for the weekend no problems,” said Hatley, who also served as an England assistant under Jones.
“I know he couldn’t be more excited about coming to Twickenham. [England] are an extremely good side, their run hasn’t been maybe what the English public would want but they’ve been playing really good rugby.”
Hatley joined England staff in 2016 and spent three and a half years working with the Australian. He reunited with Jones during his ill-fated stint with Australia before teaming up with him once more at Japan. Asked of his experiences of working with Jones in the wake of Care’s revelations, Hatley added: “I think you vote with your feet. This is the third time I’ve had the opportunity to work with him and the third time I jumped at it. I’ve enjoyed working with him immensely. He challenges me daily to be the best version I can be of myself and to make sure we get the best out of the players. It’s the third time I’ve had the opportunity to work with him and it was an absolute no brainer for me. My experiences were that I loved my time with [England] and I’ve chosen to work with Eddie twice since.”
Jones has coached at Twickenham since he was sacked by England, receiving a mixed reception from the crowd as he took charge of the Barbarians in a fixture against a World XV in the summer of 2023. Earlier this summer he also locked horns with England for the first time, with Steve Borthwick’s side claiming an emphatic 52-17 victory over Japan in Tokyo.
