Eddie Jones says the pressures of professional sport can make it an “uncomfortable” place to be for coaches and players who aren’t in it to deliver their best work.
“In society we’re going through a stage where everything is about being liked, that’s what Instagram and Facebook is about,” the former England coach told Wales centurion and Toulon flyhalf Dan Biggar in Daily Mail interview. “If I’m being absolutely honest, I don’t care [what players think of me].”
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Jones has come under fire during his career, with former England halfback Danny Care referring to Jones’ England tenure as a “dictatorship” in his autobiography and the UK media slamming his authoritarian coaching style in the latter stages of his stint with England, which ended in 2022.
The 65-year-old coach of Japan made it clear that winning remains his only objective.
“All I want to do is my best,” he said. “Sometimes I haven’t done that but if I’m happy with the job I’ve done, I can be happy. The reality of a team environment is that, mostly, it is uncomfortable. Whenever you’re winning, you’ve just got to find a way to keep the flame burning.
“One of the greatest meetings I had in my career was with Louis van Gaal, who coached all the big football clubs. He gave a simple coaching explanation.
“He said if a circle is a vision of how you want to play, look at your players. You might realise you can only play half a circle. You try to build towards the full circle. That’s very true. You need to know how you want to play but understand the group you have and their capacity to do that.”
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