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Tom Hamilton, Senior Writer
Eddie Jones said he was abused by a fan on his return to Twickenham and shrugged off the criticism of his coaching style made in Danny Care’s autobiography.
Jones’ Japan fell 59-14 to England at Twickenham on Sunday. It marked Jones’ return to Twickenham after he was sacked as England head coach in December 2022.
Jones had kept a low profile this week, delegating his pre-match news conference to Neal Hatley, but said he was abused as he walked down from his coaching box to the tunnel at half time.
“[The return to Twickenham] wasn’t bad until some clown abused me going down at half time,” Jones said. “If there’s only one clown in 81,364, it’s not too bad. Obviously disappointed with the result but it always good to come to the home of rugby.”
When asked what the individual said, Jones answered: “Well he said something, obviously I’m not going to repeat it. I’d get into trouble.”
Jones’ return came in the same month where ex-England scrum-half Care published his autobiography. Jones coached England from after the 2015 Rugby World Cup through to 2022 and Care said the England players were “terrified” of Jones and said it was like “living in a dictatorship.”
Jones was asked about Care’s comments on Sunday, and said: “Got a new book deal coming out, just signed it today. It’s called ‘Caring About Care.’ So got all the details in that mate, so I’ve got pre-order forms. If you want to read about it then there you go. It’ll be a good one.”
He added: “That’s how you get headlines, right? So I’ll put a chapter, whole chapter about ‘Caring about Care’.”
When asked about Jones, Steve Borthwick described him as a “fantastic coach who we have enormous respect for.”
Jones’ Japan scored two tries, but shipped nine against England. The result could yet be a key victory for England as they build for the Six Nations after a tricky autumn internationals where they lost to New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.
“It’s one of those difficult periods,” Jones said of England.
“The team’s obviously in transition. You’ve got some young guys coming through. There are some good young players there.
“Chandler Cunningham-South looks a prospect. [Tommy] Freeman’s starting to come through and [Tom] Roebuck’s starting to come through. Ollie Lawrence is getting some consistency in his play.
“It’s the moulding of the team where you have a lot of the guys from the 2015, 2019 and 2023 World Cups, so you always get that little sticky period where in the big games it doesn’t quite work and you get beaten by a point or two points or a penalty goal. I think they’re going in the right direction.
“The way they want to play, today they gave a lesson in pressure rugby. Every time they got on to the front foot they put the ball behind and chased hard. We got suffocated and they played really well.
“Knowing Steve fairly well I think that’s how he wants to play. It’s going to take some time but they’re going in the right direction and they put on a good display of rugby today.”
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