Eddie Jones eyes RWC semifinal berth
SPOTLIGHT: Japan coach Eddie Jones believes Japan can reach the semifinals of the 2027 World Cup, but urged his players to improve themselves to achieve that goal.
Jones warned his players they must bulk up and train harder if they want to compete on rugby’s world stage after another bruising European tour.
Jones’s side were thrashed by South Africa and Ireland before losing narrowly to Wales and eking out a last-gasp win over Georgia.
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The tour completed Jones’s second year back in charge of Japan and followed heavy defeats to England, New Zealand and France in 2024.
The feisty Australian said he wants to see candidates for the national team working harder when the domestic Japan Rugby League One season kicks off next month.
“We had a young guy coming in [to the squad] and in five months he’s put on 5 kilograms of muscle mass, but he shouldn’t need us to encourage him to do that,” Jones said after returning with the team to Tokyo.
“We need players in League One to understand that firstly you need a body to play Test match rugby, and to do that you’ve got to train appreciably harder than they’ve been training.”
Jones said players who wanted to break into his team had “a choice to make”.
“If they want to do it and they start performing well and get a body to do it, then we’re going to look at them very seriously,” he said.
“We’re looking for players who are able to win at international level.”
Jones has set his team the ambitious target of reaching the semifinals at the 2027 World Cup.
He led them to a historic World Cup win over South Africa in 2015 during his first spell in charge.
The 65-year-old said there was “no reason” why Japan could not reach the last four when the tournament is held in Australia in two years’ time.
“Unless you aspire to be the best, you’ll never get there,” he said.
“I can remember 10 years sitting here at a similar conference and saying we want to be in the top eight in the world, and everyone looked at me like I had two heads.”
