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'Iconic': Eddie Jones' South Africa jibe in wake of narrow loss to Australia
By Ben Smith
Japan’s 19-15 close loss to Australia has proved to be a confidence booster for Eddie Jones ahead of the Brave Blossoms tour of Europe which features an opening encounter against the Springboks at Wembley.
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The Brave Blossoms engaged in a warrior-like defensive effort against the Wallabies, completing 96 per cent of their 218 tackles, with just 10 missed.
With the Australians playing a compact, confronting style of forward-dominant rugby, Jones was bouyed by the close loss ahead of their match up with South Africa who possess an intimidating forward pack.
“We’re going there thinking we’re going to win,” Jones said about playing the Springboks in England.
“South Africa are like everyone, if you put pressure on and get in their face they make mistakes.
“Imagine beating South Africa at Wembley, that would be iconic.”
Japan famously completed the ‘Brighton Miracle’ under Jones at the 2015 Rugby World Cup, beating the Springboks 34-32 on English soil 10 years ago.
The two subsequent match ups, both played in 2019, ended with comfortable wins to South Africa by 41-7 and 26-3.
Jones has been building his Japan squad for two seasons, focusing on building depth with young players.
Having lost the last two Pacific Nations Cups to Fiji, Jones believes they are on the right track to compete with the heavyweights of Test rugby.
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“What I’m super pleased about is that now we (Japan) are a team that stays in the fight,” Jones told reporters.
“We kept going, we could have won the game in the end but we weren’t quite good enough.”
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