Eddie Jones says lack of commitment to change behind shock Wallabies exit, Rugby Australia

“The contract was designed so that after 12 months, if certain conditions weren’t met then there was an opportunity for either party to walk away, and that’s been the case.

“I think it’s the best decision for Rugby Australia, for the Wallabies, and for myself.

“I went into the job with the idea of changing things and part of that was changing the team and part of it was helping change the system to produce a better Wallabies team over the next period of time. The timing is just not right for it.

“I did want to go on, but coaching a team is a bit like being in a marriage – you need commitment from both sides.

“I was committed to change the team, Rugby Australia at the moment are committed to changing the team but just can’t activate the resources, which are both financial and political, to get the changes in place to make a real change in Australian rugby.

“I don’t like to leave things half-done, but I also don’t like to be in projects I don’t think can really get to where they need to get to.”

Despite reports suggesting he’d met with Japan prior to Australia’s Rugby World Cup campaign, Jones said “there is nothing on the horizon”, adding that he’d “never” received a job offer from Japan.

”I’ve come in and I’ve done the job I was asked to do. I haven’t produced the results I was asked to get, I understand that,” he said.

“I was 100 per cent committed. The only thing that’s disappointed me is the media trying to create a situation where they’re trying to make it out like I haven’t been committed to the job.

“I’ve got no job to go to, I’ve got no job offer, that’s never been the case. You can run whatever story you want, but my commitment to Australian rugby has been absolutely 100 per cent.

“The only thing I judge myself on is the commitment I’ve given the job. We haven’t had the results we wanted to have … but I went into the job knowing that I had to make change. I’ve made some of those changes, but the changes that I would dearly like to make are not available to me at the moment so it’s no use me continuing.”

Jones also denied that there was any bad blood between he and Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan and CEO Phil Waugh. 

“I think it’s healthy enough,” he said of his relationship with the pair.

“I know when these things happen all the drums beat. ‘Bad relationships’, ‘lost the dressing room’, ‘lost the administration’, they’re all the normal things that come out. I don’t think that’s the case.”