SYDNEY (Reuters) – Eddie Jones has resigned as Australia coach in the wake of the calamitous World Cup campaign but wants one more job in charge of a test team before retirement, the 63-year-old told The Australian newspaper in an interview on Sunday.
Less than two weeks after saying he would honour his contract to lead the Wallabies until the next World Cup on home soil, the former Japan and England coach said he had agreed terms with Rugby Australia relating to his exit.
Jones told the paper his decision came as imminent changes to the system that underpins the ailing game in Australia looked unlikely to transpire in the short term.
The youthful Wallabies squad he selected exited the World Cup after a campaign that included back-to-back losses to Fiji and Wales in the earliest departure from the global showpiece for the twice-world champions.
He had returned to Australia in January after being sacked by England last December but managed only two wins — against Georgia and Portugal — in nine matches.
Jones has been dogged by reports during the World Cup that he had been interviewed for a return as coach of Japan, the home nation of his mother and wife, which he has repeatedly denied.
“I haven’t got any job offer … I’ve been living apart from my wife because she lives in Japan,” Jones told the newspaper.
“I want to spend a bit of time with her. I want to stay married. I think at 63, I don’t want to get divorced.”
From December, he said he would “like to coach another international team, I’d like to coach one more team. One more cycle.”
Contacted by Reuters on Sunday, Rugby Australia said there was nothing to comment on or confirm.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney in Paris; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
