Eddie Jones: Let's get down to business

Eddie Jones may or may not be the finest coach in world rugby – Warren Gatland and Robbie Deans also have their supporters – but he is certainly too good to be true. Here is an Australian prepared to accuse his own countrymen of sacrificing the best of the sport on the altar of dumbed-down entertainment; to condemn the "experimental" laws imposed on the game by the international governing body as bordering on the nonsensical; to argue that the Guinness Premiership is a competition to be envied, not despised. As Basil Fawlty once said of a satisfied customer: "We should have him stuffed."

This afternoon at Twickenham, the 48-year-old Tasmanian begins his tenure as director of rugby at Saracens with a Premiership match against Harlequins, the very quintessence of the Englishness he once took enormous pleasure in ridiculing. In a previous life as coach of the Wallabies, he frequently ran rings round Clive Woodward off the field, if not always on it. In the life before that, when he was masterminding the astonishing rise of the Canberra-based ACT Brumbies, his stiletto-sharp soundbites helped distract and discombobulate the red rose-dominated British and Irish Lions who toured Australia in 2001. If the game here had a bête noire, he was it.

Yet many of the things he says now are music to English ears. "Let's not kid ourselves: one of the reasons we're in this mess with the law variations is that the people asked to look at the issue were hand-picked in the knowledge that they'd arrive at certain conclusions," he remarked this week after overseeing the latest hard training session at a beautifully appointed training ground on the outskirts of St Albans. "Those conclusions are aimed at making the game more entertaining, rather than making the game better. There's a big difference between the two, and it goes to the very heart of rugby's future. What are we after here? A simpler game, or a great game?

"Certain countries feel under pressure to increase what they call the 'entertainment factor', and the country under most pressure is my own. Back home, rugby union competes with rugby league and Australian Rules, games of simple ball movement – games in which complexity plays very little part. Also, union in Australia is cyclical. When we have a down period, as we've had in recent years, it goes on a lot longer than it might in New Zealand. I'd say the All Blacks are close to the bottom of their cycle right now, but they're still doing pretty well. In Australia, the reaction to a prolonged down period has manifested itself in a desire to change the nature of the sport."

As one of the Australians most implicated in this is Rod Macqueen, who coached the Wallabies to the world title in 1999 and worked virtually hand-in-glove with Jones for years, there must now be a degree of tension between them. "I've spoken to Rod about it," Jones acknowledged. "Let's say we don't see eye-to-eye on the subject.

"Look, I'm not saying there aren't things we can improve. I'd like to see the game quickened up, which is why I'd have eight replacements rather than seven and have rolling substitutions – 12 per team over the 80 minutes. It would allow you to say to an injured player: 'Right, you either get up and play, or get off the field. What you're not going to do is lay there all day, delaying everything.' There are lots of ways forward, but we need to have a sensible discussion involving people working at the professional end of the game, not the kind of half-cocked process we're seeing now."

Jones is not the longest-serving coach on earth, but few of his peers have had richer careers. After hot-housing the Brumbies to the Super 12 title in 2001 – he guided Australia's second-string team to victory over the Lions the same year – he succeeded Macqueen as Wallaby coach and somehow concocted a style of make-do-and-mend rugby effective enough to take the national team to a second successive World Cup final. The Wallaby experience turned sour on him in 2005, when his side lost eight times in nine starts. After the inevitable sacking, he dabbled around successfully with a crisis-ridden Saracens for half-a-dozen games (he was brought in by the chief executive, Mark Sinderberry, with whom he had worked in Canberra), endured a thoroughly rotten season with Queensland and then resurfaced in a strategist's role with the Springboks, helping them regain the Webb Ellis Trophy in Paris last October. Would he care to cast a backward glance over the life and times?

"It's been an interesting ride, as they say," Jones agreed. "I'd pick out two highlights. The Brumbies experience was deeply satisfying: when you have players like George Gregan, Stephen Larkham, Rod Kafer, David Giffin and Owen Finegan referring to it as the best period of their careers, it's pretty rewarding. We developed something unique there, a whole new way of playing – a style that truly suited the attitudes and the rugby intellects of the people involved.

"As for the World Cup in '03 ... well, in terms of the impact it had on Australia as a whole, it was extraordinary. We squeezed the absolute maximum from ourselves in that tournament, and while we lost the final to England in extra time, I was quite happy with what we'd achieved. I knew England were the best team in the tournament; it was obvious from the way they'd played against us in Melbourne a few months earlier, when their rugby was right off the top shelf. We set ourselves to beat the All Blacks in the semi-final. That was the big thing for us. The final was always going to be difficult, and looking back, we did well to keep England on the field for 100 minutes.

"Losing the job with the Wallabies was hard, but I think now that I'd hung on too long anyway. It's an easy mistake to make, and I made it. I have ambitions to coach at international level again, but I won't be looking at anything until my work is finished at Saracens. I've signed for three years, and I intend to be here for three years. After that, we'll see. I'll be in my early 50s then, and be a better coach than I am now."

According to the Saracens players, the new man is plenty good enough already. They routinely describe him as "inventive" and "imaginative"; the phrase "breath of fresh air" is trotted out so often it might be a party line. By the same yardstick, Jones likes what he sees. When Sinderberry first sold him the idea of getting involved, shortly after the abrupt departure of the head coach, Steve Diamond, in the spring of 2006, he found a club with "high expectations and no infrastructure – a place full of desire and ambition, but with none of the other things required for consistent, sustainable success". Two-and-a-half years on, he detects a significant improvement, thanks in no small part to the efforts of his countryman, Alan Gaffney, who departed for Leinster at the end of last season.

"We've qualified for four semi-finals in four different competitions in the space of two years," he pointed out. "We can build on foundations like that. We're nowhere near where we need to be, of course; some results have been wholly unacceptable. But we'll recruit carefully – generally speaking, I like to see a 20 per cent turnover every season – and if we can continue finding the quality of people we've introduced this time, people of ability and exceptional character who genuinely want to play for this club, we'll continue to grow.

"One of the things that impressed me about South African rugby during my time with the Springboks was their understanding of the importance of playing to their strengths in a simple, uncomplicated manner. They are often stereotyped as big, physical individuals who don't much bother with strategy. It's wrong. People like Victor Matfield, John Smit, Jacque Fourie, Butch James – they're thinkers. I want thinkers at Saracens: loyal, dedicated, talented, highly motivated thinkers. Steve Borthwick, who has joined us from Bath, is a stand-out example. It's why I've asked him to captain the side.

"I'll operate a top-down, bottom-up system. That means picking and choosing our targets at the elite end while ensuring there is a good supply from the academy. I like the idea of the Andy Saulls, the Noah Catos and the Alex Goodes being in my first-team squad. They've had a degree of success with England under-20s, but more importantly, they've been here long enough to understand the ethos of the place. By promoting them, I don't have to waste time teaching them about character and attitude. They already know the things that are expected of them.

"When I look back at the Brumbies experience, I realise how special it was. Can it be recreated at Saracens? That's the plan. Everyone here wants to be a part of something special, but for people to get there, they have to earn the right to play the rugby of their dreams. Ultimately, it's about the work. If you don't put it in, you'll get nothing out."

My other life

"Away from rugby? Apart from family, cricket's by far the biggest thing. I love the game, like most Australians, if not all of them. I used to fancy myself as a bit of a batsman and played first-grade cricket in Sydney until I was 23, when I packed it in to concentrate on rugby. I've missed it ever since. In fact, until I came to Saracens, I'd played only one game in about 25 years. Since arriving here, I've played three in the space of a few weeks. Nigel Wray [the Saracens chairman and principal investor] is a big cricket follower who regularly fixes up charity matches. I hope he keeps doing it, because it's tremendous fun. Recently we had a game with some pretty big names on both sides: I was playing alongside Justin Langer while Owais Shah and Marcus Trescothick were among the opposition. Much to my horror, I dropped Shah twice. The first time he pushed one at me, I spilled the ball in my dive. Langer, who was meant to be a team-mate, said: 'Just keep hitting it at him, Owais. You'll be fine.' A typical Aussie, I guess. When people talk about the greatest sportsman who ever lived, is it possible to look much further than Don Bradman? Just look at the statistics. No one has ever dominated his sport the way Bradman dominated cricket."

Eddie Jones joins The Independent

Eddie Jones, the outstanding Australian coach who guided the Wallabies to the 2003 WorldCup final and helped the Springboks to the title in Paris last year, will be writing regularly in The Independent this season - his first full Premiership campaign as director of rugby at Saracens. Read his weekly column, starting next Saturday

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