Eddie Jones is an Australian professional rugby union coach and former player. He is the current head coach of the England national rugby union team. He has previously coached the Australian national team during the 2003 Rugby World Cup and also coached the Japanese national team for three years leading up to the 2015 Rugby World Cup. He was born in Burnie, Tasmania, to a Japanese American mother and an Australian father.
Jones was named as the new England head coach on 20 November 2015. He agreed a four-year deal to become England's first foreign head coach, that would see him lead the English into the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Jones brought in Steve Borthwick, who also coached Japan with him, from Bristol, and Paul Gustard from Saracens as his assistant coaches. The coaching team led England to their first Grand Slam since 2003, having beaten all their opponents in the 2016 Six Nations Championship. They opened with a 15–9 win over Scotland before seeing out Italy 40–9.
In Jones' first home game, he led England to a 21–10 victory over Ireland, before going onto beat Wales 25–21 a week later - at one point they led the Welsh 19–0, though conceded 3 tries in the second half. England secured the Championship on 13 March when Scotland beat France, which meant England was going into the final round having already secured the title. A 31–21 victory over France in the final game of the 2016 Championship, saw England win their first Grand Slam since 2003.
He then took his English side to tour Australia for a three-test series against the Wallabies, which saw England win the series 3–0, this was England's first ever three-test series victory. In the first test, England scored their most points against Australia when they won 39–28. The second test saw England win their third consecutive match against Australia on Australian soil, winning 23–7, a record winning margin for a game on Australian soil. The final test confirmed the whitewash, winning 44–40. During the series, Jones had led England from 4th in the world to 2nd. During the 2016 Autumn Internationals, he led England through to their 14th consecutive win, 13 under him, and became just the second team behind New Zealand to win all their games in a calendar year. He guided England to a 37–21 win over South Africa, their first win over the Springboks since 2006. England later saw off Fiji 58–15, before beating Argentina 27–14 a week later. They finished the Autumn tests with a 37–21 win over Australia.
During the 2017 Six Nations Championship, Jones suffered his first defeat as English head coach when England traveled to Dublin in the final week of the Championship. They lost 13–9 in what could have seen England win their second consecutive grand slam and a record 19th consecutive win. England did however win the Championship with wins over France (19–16), Wales (21–16), Italy (36–15) and Scotland (61–21). In June 2017, Jones took a inexperienced side on a two-test series to Argentina which included 18 uncapped players 8 of which were 20 years old or younger. Despite this, England won the series 2–0 with a 38–34 victory in the first test followed by a 35–25 victory in the second.
Jones guided England to their first World Cup final since 2007 when they beat reigning world champions New Zealand 19–7 in the semi-finals of the 2019 Rugby World Cup. South Africa overpowered England in the final a week later to deliver a 32–12 defeat, ending Jones' ambition of leading his team to World Cup glory in Japan.
Jones returned to his position as head coach of Australia in 2023.
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