‘Ireland have all the power at World Rugby’ – Eddie Jones’ fumes after being forced to ‘accept’ Nations Championship ‘inequality’
Japan head coach Eddie Jones and Ireland boss Andy Farrell.
Japan head coach Eddie Jones has taken a rather dim view of World Rugby’s decision to play their Nations Championship encounter against Ireland in Australia.
It was recently announced that the Brave Blossoms would be facing Andy Farrell’s men in Newcastle, a city in New South Wales.
The upcoming tournament, which is taking place for the first time, sees the best teams from the two hemispheres collide with the Six Nations outfits in one group and the Rugby Championship nations, plus Fiji and Japan, in the other pool, despite the latter being situated in the north.
Akin to previous mid-year Tests, the European countries go on their travels in the July window with the Irish facing the Wallabies, Japan and All Blacks.
However, instead of flying to Asia, Ireland will be allowed to face the Brave Blossoms in Australia before heading to New Zealand.
Long flight for ‘home’ Test
That means the Japanese must travel 10 hours for one of their ‘home’ game before returning to Tokyo for their third encounter of the month against France.
“You know why we’re playing Ireland in Newcastle, right? Ireland have all the power at World Rugby, so we have to play our home game, which should be in Tokyo, in Australia to make sure Ireland don’t have to travel too much,” a distinctly unimpressed Jones said on the Rugby Unity podcast.
“Let’s be frank about this.”
Host of the show, David Pembroke, then looked for more clarity, asking Jones: “So Ireland said: ‘we’re not going to Tokyo’?”
Jones duly responded: “We just have to suck it up and that’s what happens when you’re not a major political power at the table.”
Pembroke pressed further, wondering how much say Japan had over the decision to move the contest to Newcastle.
“I know how they took place,” Jones stated. “Ireland say: ‘We’re not going from New Zealand to Japan and then back to Australia, we’re not doing that’.”
“Japan, you want to be in the Nations Cup? Yes, of course we do, but you’ve got to use one of your home games to play in Australia.
“It’s simple mate, it’s not complicated.”
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Japan and Fiji were invited to play in the competition, but in return, they have had to make concessions.
They are the only teams that have had to move their ‘home’ games with the Pacific Islanders playing all three matches in Britain.
Eddie Jones tones it down
“We’ve got to be grateful to be in the Nations Cup and at the end of the day it’s a huge honour for Japan to be in the Nations Cup, so we’ve got to accept there might be some inequalities in terms of the distribution of games,” Jones said, playing it with a slightly straighter bat.
Japan’s boss did, however, scoff at Pembroke’s suggestion that Newcastle is an “emerging, strengthening hub for rugby in Australia”, before once again toning down the rhetoric and playing the ‘rugby politician’.
“I don’t know about that. Newcastle’s probably been neglected for a long period of time. It definitely was [a developing area for rugby],” he added.
“We spent some time there last week and the Wildfires club is going well and by all account the juniors in the Hunter Valley is doing very well.
“It needs some encouragement so we’re looking forward to playing the game there against a very good Ireland side, to keep everyone happy.
“This is my first step to being a rugby politician. Next time I’m going to wear a blazer.”
