6 Oct 2015

Japan coach on England radar

1:25 pm on 6 October 2015

Japan's rugby coach Eddie Jones is on England's radar, but while he's open to an approach, he thinks the incumbent Stuart Lancaster deserves a fair review first.

Japan rugby coach Eddie Jones

Japan rugby coach Eddie Jones Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The former Wallabies mentor, who engineered Japan's stunning upset of South Africa last month, has been touted in the media as a candidate to replace Lancaster after England's failure to qualify for the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals.

Jones signed a deal less than two weeks ago to coach the Cape Town-based Super Rugby team the Stormers in Super Rugby, but he said becoming England's first foreign coach was appealing.

Jones, who coached Australia to the 2003 World Cup final and was an advisor to South Africa when they won the tournament in 2007, said in his Daily Mail newspaper column it had been an error to dump first five George Ford for Owen Farrell for their second match against Wales.

Meanwhile English rugby's chief executive Ian Ritchie has said there'll be no knee-jerk decisions over Lancaster's future.

- Reuters

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