Quade Cooper: Japanese players ‘knew’ about Eddie Jones’ reported meeting

Veteran Wallabies playmaker Quade Cooper has revealed that “a lot” of Japanese players knew Eddie Jones had apparently ‘interviewed’ with the JRFU well before it was made public in a report during the Rugby World Cup.

Just before Australia’s record 40-6 World Cup defeat to Wales in Lyon, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Wallabies coach Eddie Jones had met with Japan over their head coach role.

The phrase “I don’t know what you’re talking about, mate” almost became synonymous with coach Jones as the 63-year-old continued to deny the link for the weeks and months that followed.

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But after resigning as the Wallabies’ head coach after their disastrous pool stage exit at the sport’s showpiece event, coach Jones was unveiled as Japan’s new head coach on Wednesday.

“I didn’t do an interview before the World Cup,” Jones said at a press conference.

“I was asked by the recruitment agency to share my experiences with them. The first interview I had with Japan was in December and that’s the only interview I’ve had.”

While not everyone was convinced by Jones’ version of events – with two-time Rugby World Cup-winning All Black Sonny Bill Williams slamming Jones – it seemed the bizarre saga had come to an end.

But a fresh development from dropped Australia flyhalf Quade Cooper has thrown another spanner into the works.

“It was interesting because a lot of the Japanese players here said, ‘Oh, this is quite old.’ They all knew about it,” Cooper told The Sydney Morning Herald.

“They were like, ‘You guys didn’t know about it?’ We were like, ‘Nah, this is crazy, we’re just hearing about it.’

“It was only a few weeks earlier that I was in Wallabies camo. Some of the things asked from a commitment standpoint… that raised a lot of questions.”

Jones had signed on for five years with Rugby Australia and planned to take the Wallabies to two Rugby World Cups, and to guide them against the British and Irish Lions in 2025 as well.

It seemed for quite some time that ‘Eddie’ would be the saviour that the sport so desperately needed Down Under but that wasn’t the case in the end.

The Wallabies won two from nine Test matches under coach Jones in 2023, and of course bundled out of the Rugby World Cup in the pool stage for the first time ever.

“Eddie lacked significant expertise. As players, we tried to buy into what he was preaching, as not doing so would paint us as a detriment,” Cooper said.

“However, common sense was hard to ignore, and it was remarkable that Rugby Australia couldn’t see it.

“For instance, Jason Ryles, a rugby league prop, served as an attack coach for the Wallabies at a World Cup. How much did he truly know about rugby attack? That encapsulated the situation.

“Many rugby coaches could have excelled in that role and I really feel for those guys who were overlooked, especially those who have sacrificed so much just to be dismissed for a rugby league prop.”