{"id":225746,"date":"2025-10-19T19:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T19:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/225746\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T19:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T19:07:08","slug":"ikitau-jokes-as-australia-prepares-to-face-former-coach-in-japan-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/225746\/","title":{"rendered":"Ikitau jokes as Australia prepares to face former coach in Japan test"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time, Australia exited in the pool stages<\/a> and making matters worse, Jones \u2013 who had a five-year contract with RA \u2013 was sprung doing a Zoom interview<\/a> mid-tour with Japan about their head coach vacancy.<\/p>\n

A few weeks later Jones cited broken funding promises and resigned as Wallabies coach<\/a>, and no-one rushed to stop him. Jones was appointed coach of Japan<\/a> 45 days later.<\/p>\n

\"Eddie<\/p>\n

Eddie Jones watches over a Wallabies\u2019 training session in Melbourne in 2023.Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

Fast-forward 22 months, and much water has passed under the bridge for the revitalised Wallabies. But not quite enough to wash away all the residual bitterness. Witness the wisecrack from Ikitau, the world-class centre who was most inexplicably overlooked by Jones.<\/p>\n

But as much as it would make good theatre this week for the Wallabies to be fired up and chasing retribution against Jones, the reality is \u2026 well, a bit more complicated \u2013 on several fronts.<\/p>\n

For starters, most of Jones\u2019 2023 Rugby World Cup squad won\u2019t be in Tokyo this week. Of the 33-man squad who went to France, there are 10 survivors in the Wallabies camp in Japan and in contention to play.<\/p>\n

For various reasons, 14 of Jones\u2019 World Cup squad have not played a single Test since, and two others played one and two Tests respectively.<\/p>\n

Some were injured, some moved countries or codes, and others just didn\u2019t make the cut under Schmidt, who went through his own audition process. But the new coach promptly recalled many of the senior players cut by Jones and, indeed, Schmidt even built a side around them: Harry Wilson, Jake Gordon, Noah Lolesio, Ikitau and Tom Wright.<\/p>\n

Another 14 new players in the current Wallabies\u2019 spring tour squad were blooded in 2024 or 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we\u2019re all really excited to get to Japan,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cA lot of us haven\u2019t played over there, and Japan are a really good opposition. We\u2019re definitely not focusing on the fact that Eddie Jones is the coach. A bit of a reunion for a fair few of the boys, but we\u2019re really excited to go over there and do a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beating Eddie would be nice though, wouldn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

\"Len<\/p>\n

Len Ikitau tries to charge through the Lions defence.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d definitely be nice. You want to win every Test match, and I\u2019m sure a few of the boys would definitely love it,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cBut, as I said, we\u2019re very focused on ourselves and making sure we go over there and do the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson was being diplomatic as skipper, and it must be said some Wallabies players do credit Jones with giving them a first Test cap or for improving under him. But, privately, there is also no shortage of Wallabies players who still shake their heads about the chaos and disappointment of 2023.<\/p>\n

The complicating factor about the revenge narrative, though, is many of the aggrieved won\u2019t even be squaring up with their old coach in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Ikitau is in England, and Lolesio and Wright have long-term injuries. Wilson may also find himself benched, given the Wallabies are playing five Tests in 30 days, and Schmidt has signalled he intends to rest players who\u2019ve had big workloads over the winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been nice to play that Japan game, but I\u2019m at Exeter now,\u201d Ikitau told reporters on Friday night. \u201cI\u2019ve just come into camp with these boys, and for me it\u2019s about earning their trust. So as much as it would have been nice to play against uncle Eddie, my full focus is Exeter right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

That strategy from Schmidt will see a batch of players come into the side who were also ignored for the 2023 World Cup and will take their chance to remind Jones of his mistake \u2013 players like Hunter Paisami, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Pete Samu and Filipo Daugunu.<\/p>\n

But this is a group who are, in fact, likely more focused on proving something to Schmidt than to Jones, given they\u2019ve mostly been on the Wallabies\u2019 fringes this year.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

In a strange twist, Carter Gordon has returned, and he qualifies in most categories. He was backed \u2013 and sacked \u2013 by Jones in 2023, and hasn\u2019t played a single Test since. But after a stint in league, he is now back in the Wallabies squad, and looking to rebuild his rugby career<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For his part, Schmidt said he hadn\u2019t heard talk of the Wallabies being driven by wanting to beat Jones.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t heard it said amongst the players,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cIt was before my time. I started 18 months ago, and in that 18 months none of the discussion has really been about what went previously.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The focus is on] an investment in their performance more than anything that they might be wanting to prove to another person.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time, Australia exited in the pool stages and making matters worse, Jones \u2013 who had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-225746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}