Japan coach Eddie Jones yesterday joked that he was “looking for a laundry basket” to escape a four-match ban imposed by his own leadership for verbally abusing a referee.
The Japan Rugby Football Union slapped the 66-year-old with a suspension and cut his salary last month for “incidences of verbal abuse directed at local match officials” during a Japan Under-23 team tour of Australia in April.
Jones will miss Japan’s Nations Championship opener against Italy in Tokyo on July 4.
Photo: AFP
The Australian told reporters after naming his squad for a training camp that he was hoping to emulate soccer coach Jose Mourinho, who took a famously unorthodox approach to get around a ban in 2005 when he was Chelsea head coach.
“He went into the dressing room in a laundry basket, so I’m looking for a laundry basket,” Jones said, before saying that he was “only joking.”
Jones cut an otherwise contrite figure as he faced reporters for the first time since the JRFU announced his punishment.
He began by reading an apology and said he had been doing “community work” coaching in Singapore to atone for his actions.
“I love the game of rugby, so I do feel very disappointed in my own behavior that I’ve brought the game into this area where we have to discuss it at a press conference,” he said. “But like everyone, we make mistakes and now it’s time to move on.”
Jones was suspended from all activities for six weeks from April 24 to Friday last week and was not allowed to watch games in Japan’s domestic league during that time.
He missed two games pitting a Japan select team against Hong Kong last month and is barred from a Japan XV team game against the Maori All Blacks on June 27 in Nagoya.
He is free to coach the full Japan team at their training camp starting on Saturday, but he is not allowed to set foot in the stadium for their game against Italy.
He returns to the coaching box for Japan’s Nations Championship game against Ireland in Newcastle, Australia, on July 11. Japan face France in Tokyo on July 18 in the inaugural edition of the tournament.
Jones said that he was given the ban because of “one comment which I regret saying to the referee”.
“I apologized to the referee straight after the game,” he said. “But it was the wrong decision and I shouldn’t have done it.”