The boot inspires Jones boy

By WYNNE GRAY

One of Eddie Jones' greatest disappointments in rugby led him into coaching, a career which has taken him to the supreme job with the Wallabies.

In the 1980s Jones was a nuggety little hooker for the Randwick club in Sydney and good enough to represent New South Wales.

The club had close ties with then Wallaby coach Bob Dwyer and when the test hooker's job became vacant in 1989, Jones thought he had a chance.

Instead, Dwyer bypassed Jones and elevated the club's reserve grade hooker, Phil Kearns, to the Wallabies.

"I had aspirations to go further, but to be fair, at only 80kg, the same weight I am today, I was struggling," Jones recalled. "I was devastated, but when I was able to look back it was the best experience of my life. It was all about getting on and doing something else."

The following season Jones played senior rugby until he was demoted a grade, but elevated to be captain.

"That got me more involved in the direction of the side and gave me the itch to go coaching."

Jones brings an outward serenity and public involvement to his work, he loves debating it, and is always ready to espouse his philosophy on where the sport is heading and should be going.

The 43-year-old was raised in the southern Sydney suburb of La Perouse, the son of mixed parentage.

His father was a soldier in occupied Japan after World War II. There he met his Japanese wife who was working as an interpreter for the Australian Army.

Jones also married a Japanese woman, Hiroko. They met when he was deputy headmaster and she a teacher at the same Sydney school.

While teaching was fascinating, rugby was a passion which offered a career when the sport went professional.

At school, Jones was in the same team as the Ella brothers and they all continued to the Randwick club.

"They had great footballing instincts and playing with them and being coached by others with vision gave me a great rugby education," Jones said. "I guess I was a tough, feisty little fellow who played hard and tried to be smarter to try to counteract my size. I have brought that through in my coaching and tried to instil that in the Wallabies.

"In a lot of ways your background moulds you and your philosophy towards the game."

Jones' mixed blood has assisted his work with the changing face of the Wallabies - a team who include players with Fijian, Tongan, South African, Zambian and Torres Straits ancestry.

"It is a new phenomenon for Australia because in the past it was very much an Anglo-Saxon side.

"The present players give a variety of ideas, have different behaviour patterns, and you have to understand and deal with that because it affects the way you play.

"I think the game in Australia is moving towards a different style and we have to take that present mode and evolve it into something else."

Jones is obsessive about his work, but does not know of any international coach who is any different.

He is a huge video watcher, his research is extensive and he spends long hours in the office.

But his rule is never to take his work home to his wife and 10-year-old daughter.

He believes that in time, all the backs outside the first five-eighths will be interchangeable. He has not got the Wallabies to that skill level yet, but feels that junction may only be a few years away.

"There are tiers of simplicity and tiers of complexity, and there is no right way to play the game.

"It is like that New York Yankees manager who had a saying about 'who wrote the book.'

"In rugby there is no book, and you can play the game anyway to be successful.

"That's why you get such great debate about how to play and who should be selected." Jones doesn't know how long he has left in international rugby coaching but, like his team, he knows he can still improve.

However, when his time with the Wallabies expires, he wants to continue coaching, his love of the game is too strong to return to teaching.