WORLD OF RUGBY: Eddie Jones has a chance to fix his battered reputation with rugby’s pre-eminent pantomime villain relishing his dismissal as a busted flush after taking the Japan job… but has he lost it?

• Eddie Jones is back in charge of Japan and now holds a legacy opportunity 
• He has been widely dismissed but Jones, a defiant character, will relish this 
• Jones has a precious chance to change perceptions and repair his reputation 

It has been a decidedly murky process, but while anyone selling Eddie Jones voodoo dolls in Australia will be doing a roaring trade, he is back in charge of Japan with a legacy opportunity.

The man who ran the England team for seven years is rugby’s pre-eminent pantomime villain. That status has been unchallenged for years. He hasn’t enjoyed any popularity, anywhere, since 2019.

Having rattled cages on a global scale for so long, he became strongly disliked by English fans, before antagonising his countrymen in record time during that short, ill-fated second stint as head coach of the Wallabies. 

Jones has been widely dismissed as a busted flush but this defiant, bullish character will relish such a motivational commentary.

Following his appointment in Tokyo last week, all the focus was on months of lies and denials amid a loud backlash Down Under. But when all that noise fades, Jones has a precious chance to change perceptions and repair his battered reputation. He may not care either way but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an underlying factor.

Eddie Jones now has a chance to repair his battered reputation after taking the Japan job

Jones (centre) has been widely dismissed as a busted flush but he is defiant and bullish

There is vast potential in Japan. The game is booming. The League One regular-season attendance record was broken twice over the weekend, as 31,312 watched Yokohama v Toyota on Saturday, before 31,953 saw the Tokyo derby between Sungoliath and Toshiba Brave Lupus on Sunday.

Test superstars are migrating to the Far East in droves, drawn by sky-high wages and short seasons.

Jones needs to ride the wave and enhance it with another golden era of success. Japan fell away after their swashbuckling 2019 team reached the World Cup quarters in front of an enthralled host nation, four years after Jones’s Brave Blossoms stunned the Boks in Brighton.

This time, there needs to be more substance underneath the surface. Jones had a narrow remit with the RFU between 2015 and 2022. It was all about the senior England men’s team and nothing else, but he has to have a wider brief now. 

Jones has to prove that a pathway is something he can work on, as well as walk on.

This is the job that Jones wanted and it may be the one that allows him to change perceptions

There is a tantalising prospect that he can provide a service to the sport at large, if Japan become a major force on his watch. 

They can be the new superpower rugby desperately needs, with mass interest, a lucrative commercial market and a geographical location which can serve as a new hub for regional growth. Jackpot.

Can Jones still do it, though? England declined after 2019 and his car-crash with the Wallabies left many in the game – perhaps even Jones himself – suspecting that his methods just don’t work any more.

Having been known as a quick-shock merchant, he boldly declared he could make Australia World Cup contenders, but they were miles off. So has he lost it? Possibly. 

Japan might have made a huge mistake bringing him back, but this is the job that Jones wanted and it may be the one that allows him to repair his reputation, at the end of a colourful career.

HOWLEY’S CHANCE DESERVED 

This column is absolutely delighted for Rob Howley after his return to the Wales set-up, in a role which will also involve working with the Under 18s and Under 20s. A good man and fine servant to Welsh rugby has paid his dues after being exiled for betting on matches.

He sought help for his gambling addiction and for the psychological struggles which led to it, and after previously being blocked from working with Wales again, it is right he has been given another chance. 

Howley has endured more than his fair share of venom and vilification over the years but he knows how to coach and he was a fine player. Warren Gatland is savvy and has a ruthless streak, so he isn’t just bringing back an old comrade based on sentiment. He knows Howley can enhance the national set-up. Good luck to him.

Rob Howley’s return to the Wales set-up is deserved – he is a good man and a fine servant

FRENCH NIGHTMARE 

Any bookie offering odds on zero wins from six Champions Cup games played so far by La Rochelle, Racing 92 and Toulon would not have had many takers. The French heavyweights have had strangely, shockingly poor starts, with new setbacks over the weekend against the Stormers, Ulster and Northampton respectively. 

All of them can still progress to the knockouts but any more lapses will be fatal and there is danger that the mighty trio will switch efforts now to their league and abandon what was once the European Cup. 

Bath can knock out Top14 leaders Racing if they beat them at the Rec next month, and if Leicester take their full-strength side to La Rochelle, they could eject the holders. If they don’t or can’t, Sale have a chance to remove the champions in a pool decider in Salford on January 21. Who would have thought it? 

Racing 92 and their fellow French heavyweights have struggled so far in the Champions Cup

THE LAST WORD 

More than 10,000 were present at Cardiff Arms Park for a thriller between the spirited home side and visiting Bath, who ended up claiming a 39-32 win after a riotous contest. 

A strong contingent of away fans added to the atmosphere – and to the latest pang of regret that plans for an Anglo-Welsh league are not on boardroom tables for prompt approval. It just works. The rivalries are historic, engrained and fierce.

The fixtures guarantee bums on seats, which English and especially Welsh professional teams so desperately need in an era of acute fears about declining interest. 

If the four Welsh regions were added to the new two-division Premiership project which is being drawn up and fine-tuned, there would be instant benefits on both sides of the border.

Of course, it would leave issues elsewhere. What would be the impact on the United Rugby Championship? Not much, frankly, because it just isn’t engaging the public in the Principality, so crowds and revenues are low, and budgets are tight. 

An Anglo-Welsh alliance would have the opposite impact. It probably won’t happen, but it should.

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