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'Iconic': Eddie Jones' South Africa jibe in wake of narrow loss to Australia

Head coach Eddie Jones of Japan is seen prior to the rugby international test between Japan and Australia at National Stadium on October 25, 2025 in Sendai, Japan. (Photo by Koki Nagahama/Getty Images)
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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.

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Points Flow Chart

Australia win +4
Time in lead
0
Mins in lead
69
0%
% Of Game In Lead
86%
51%
Possession Last 10 min
49%
0
Points Last 10 min
0

“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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EvilMockingJay 1 hour ago
Antoine Dupont missing for now as Galthie names 33-man France squad

Oh but we want that Cup too ! But SA and NZ don't want to play fair with us xD France is a strong team but not enough to win a final, a semi or a quarter at 16 against 15 xD

Like in 2023, there was 27 (!!!) “mistakes” from BOK against us. Fallen for 1 point. Can't say we would have won against England (who were robbed too, and fallen for 1 point too) and NZ after but I personally believe so. England was pretty weak, getting beated again and again by France and we humilated the Blacks during the opening match. Again 2011 and also 1995… it’s normal not to win every time, after all we are not the only team that play to win. But being robbed every time you have a real chance (or just you were winning no question ask without a ref who suddently stop following the rules of rugby) is harsh. There is voices in France that are starting to say “screw this corrupt World Rugby and screw this RWC, let’s just play our Top14, after all we will never win a World Cup because it is rigged to let a SH team win”. And when you see how it goes (terrible ref being promoted to a RWC final, change in the rules when we are specialists about it, that stupid 20’ red card that encourage brutality from players and partiality from ref and always for or against the same team, forward pass not seen when it’s the other team doing them, same with offsides…) what can you say to these people ? I keep the faith one day we will get that WC, but after 2023, at home, it’s hard to say to these people “no you are wrong”. Like France (one country among a lot of other countries) were robbed 3 times. That’s a lot for ONE country and one competition taking place only every 4 years. And we ain't the only ones robbed. Always by the same teams : RSA or NZ.



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EvilMockingJay 2 hours ago
Antoine Dupont missing for now as Galthie names 33-man France squad

Oh yeah, i was meaning 8 in the starting 15 at Toulouse in top14. Wasn’t counting bench or CC or 6N ^^. That’s partly why I told you Galthié did not learn from what happened in 2023. When Dupont became available, bam, your going to Marcoussis. Like man, let him play with his club for a bit first don't trow him against national teams right away... Exactly the same situation as 2023…

I already know what is going to happen in 2027. Last (or the one before, you know, i don't see japanese team doing such a dirty move, but samoa ? Oh yeah, i’m clearly seeing that coming) pool match Dupont will get hit and will be out of the competition with another big injury. Probably not going to happen for NTK, because without Dupont he’s just not at international level at all and everyone saw it. Meaning will get something like Lucu (or Le Garrec)/NTK (because he wants so badly NTK on the field) and we will loose. Again. Lucu, Le Garrec, Jauneau and Jalibert—they’re nothing more than stopgaps for Galthié. He just wants Dupont and NTK, and that’s it. He’d make them play against the Boks or the All Blacks even on one leg. That’s pretty sad being unable to work with 9 and 10 jersey considering we are the nation with the most of international 9s possible. And everyone (except Ben Smith the troll) envy us MJ at number 10… as you said i would love to see both ST and UBB half-backs in the same match but it ain't gonna happen. I’m not a fan of the idea too put MJ at number 15 (did he ever took that place even in his club ?), his talent is more the one of a real fly-half than a full back. Would be wasting both his talent as 10 and Ramos precision for conversions, but that’s only my opinion since we never saw him play 15, maybe i judge him to harsh. Ain’t a problem against Australia (they are in a really poor state) but facing the Boks ? Naah, too experimental.



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