'He was never going to be that': How Jones spots 'Test match animals'

Japan head coach Eddie Jones admits he has “another scar at the back of your head that you feel at 1:30 in the morning” after his side lost their second Asahi Super Dry Pacific Nations Cup to Fiji in as many years, but believes the Brave Blossoms have taken “some big steps forward.”

After opening a 10-0 lead in the opening quarter of the match at America First Field in Utah, USA, on Sunday, Japan eventually came away 33-27 losers. The result came a year to the day after Jones’ side lost 41-17 at home to the same opponents in a match the 65-year-old concedes they “couldn’t compete with them.”

Just days removed from the final, Jones is drawing a lot of positives from what he has seen over the past month ahead of a campaign where the world number 13s will take on Australia, South Africa, Ireland, Wales and Georgia in consecutive weeks over October and November.

“We won every 20 minutes apart from the second 20 minutes, where Fiji scored three turnover tries, and that was the difference in the game,” Jones said when speaking to RugbyPass at Wembley Stadium recently, where the Brave Blossoms will return in November to take on the Springboks.

“I was really impressed by the way our young team has improved so much because 12 months ago, we played them in the final and, in reality, couldn’t compete with them. So we made some big steps forward, but it’s always tough losing a final, you just get another scar at the back of your head that you feel at 1:30 in the morning. There’s another one.”

But with nine uncapped players named in his original 37-man squad for the tournament, five of which featured in the final, this was undeniably a young squad, and with veteran captain Michael Leitch absent from the tournament for personal reasons, this was eyed as an opportunity to blood in a new generation.

Few elite coaches in the Test arena can rival Jones’ ability to spot young players with potential and then back them, which dates back to the beginning of his coaching career, where he recruited a 19-year-old George Smith at the Brumbies.

Given the ‘Chosoku Rugby’ (super-fast rugby) brand that Jones has created in Japan, the players he is looking for may differ from those he sought when he took charge of England and Australia. But he has a clear vision of what he is looking for.

“Firstly, that they want to play like a Japanese player,” he said. “We want to go back to playing like Japan, because I think that sometimes can get lost. At the end of the game, we had 11 Japanese players on the field, competing hard. We want to play like Japan. We want to compete every play, play hard. The interesting thing about rugby is that the ball-in-play time hasn’t changed, but what has changed is the intensity of the effort in those ball-in-play periods. We just want to be a team that competes for everything, and we’re getting better and better.”

Indeed, this commitment to youth was evident during his spell with England, with the Australian’s fingerprints all over Steve Borthwick’s squad. The spine of the current England team were brought through by Jones at a young age – Tom Curry, George Martin and  Ted Hill were only teenagers when they made their debuts, while Ollie Chessum, Ollie Lawrence and Tommy Freeman were only 21 – and while some decisions raised a few eyebrows at the time – some of which Jones has questioned himself – Borthwick is bearing the fruit of the seeds Jones planted.

Martin only had seven Leicester Tigers appearances to his name when he debuted for England in 2021. Two years later, he was starting in a World Cup semi-final against the eventual winners South Africa. Jones saw something in the teenager, as he has with many other players, which fits the two criteria he is looking for in ‘Test match animals’.

“Well, I always think back, I was lucky to be coached by Bob Dwyer and he always used to say to me, when I first started coaching: ‘always look for those players that have the little things you can’t coach,'” he said.

“That’s what you look for — a feel for the game, or a certain toughness for the game, things they’re either born with or they’ve been in an environment that’s allowed them to develop those sort of talents. The other thing is players who want to grow, who just want to keep growing. So they’re the two things: that little bit of ‘uncoachability’ and that aspiration to keep growing.”

With this knack of identifying potential Test stars comes the ability to decipher which players may not make the grade at international rugby despite their dominance on the club scene.

Throughout Jones’ career, his selections have been defined as much by who has been picked as those who have not. Many England players were imperious on the club scene during Jones’ seven-year tenure, but could not establish themselves in the national squad as they lacked what he described as “that little bit extra.”

Fixture

Internationals

England

25 - 7

Full-time

Australia

All Stats and Data

Sam Simmonds was even singled out by Jones as someone who was an “excellent player” – being crowned EPCR player of the year in 2020 – but did not fit the bill of a Test player. This was an opinion that was held by Borthwick as well, who omitted the No.8 from his 2023 World Cup squad.

“You see players who can be really good club players, but they just don’t have that little bit extra that’s needed at Test level,” Jones continued. “Sam Simmonds was a really good player, an excellent player, outstanding at club level, but at Test level, he just lacked that little bit of bulk. He still played some good Tests for England, but he was never going to be that absolutely standout No.8. But a good player and a good lad.”

Jones’ second stint in charge of the Wallabies may have been shorter than his time at Twickenham, but he nevertheless laid some of the foundations that Joe Schmidt is building upon.

Though he never got the opportunity to coach Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Jones was instrumental in bringing the 22-year-old over to rugby union from the NRL, and tips him to be the next superstar of the game.

“The one that stands out for me at the moment is Sualli’i in Australia,” he said. “We picked him out of rugby league because he had that ability to win the ball in the air in any situation. He’s a big, physical guy. He grew up with rugby, good values, tough, good manners, humble, and he’s got a physical point of difference, and aggressive, he’s aggressive. When he does things, he lifts the Australia side.”

International rugby union returns to Wembley Stadium on 1 November as world champions South Africa take on Japan. Buy tickets here.