Eddie Jones has resigned as Australia coach after a torrid nine-month spell in charge, reasoning that “sometimes you have to eat s*** for others to eat caviar further down the track.” Eddie Jones resigns just a day after the tournament concluded with South Africa retaining their title and becoming the first men’s side to win a fourth World Cup.

Jones’s ill-fated second stint in the role culminated in the Wallabies failing to make the quarter-finals for the first time in their history at the Rugby World Cup in France after being thumped by Wales and suffering a first defeat in 69 years at the hands of Fiji.

Read more: South Africa win World Cup by one point against 14-man All Blacks

Jones, 63, replaced Dave Rennie at the helm at the start of the year after he was sacked by England last December but managed two wins and despite having signed a contract “until 2027” has walked before the 2025 British & Irish Lions tour and home World Cup in four years’ time.

Eddie Jones resigns

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald – the same outlet that reported Jones had interviewed for the vacant Japan job on the eve of the World Cup – Jones revealed his decision to quit, a move that is yet to be officially confirmed by his employers Rugby Australia.

He told the SMH: “(I) gave it a run. Hopefully be the catalyst for change. Sometimes you have to eat s*** for others to eat caviar further down the track.”

Jones had been vocal about his belief that Australia would win the World Cup and picked the youngest squad of all the countries at the tournament, jettisoning veterans such as former captain Michael Hooper as well as fly-halves Quade Cooper and Bernard Foley.

The former England boss has repeatedly been linked with a return to the Brave Blossoms, with whom he beat South Africa in one of the greatest Rugby World Cup upsets of all time back in 2015.

However, Eddie Jones resigns after constantly denying talk he is set to replace Jamie Joseph, who finished an eight-year stint after Japan’s Pool D defeat to Argentina which denied them a second successive quarter-final appearance.

Download the digital edition of Rugby World straight to your tablet or subscribe to the print edition to get the magazine delivered to your door.

Follow Rugby World on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X.