As former Wales player, I could not have previously admitted this, especially when we play against their teams in England or Australia, but I loved seeing the press conferences of Eddie Jones. They were the highlight of my week.
As a test player, I hated him when my teammates would face the media and deploy boring and meaningless topics. Rugby needs characters and Eddie is undoubtedly one of those.
He is always entertaining when he sits with journalists. Now I am doing the work of the media while I am playing for Toulon, I am trying to continue with the same attitude that I have always had. I want to give my honest opinion, be fair and have fun a bit!
Eddie has been shot down on numerous occasions and has painted in many corners as a villain who plays many mental games. His training methods have been criticized.
But I find a fascinating character. I have often been the no 10 in the opposition that he has been trying to stop, so it was brilliant for me sitting with him in a different environment and talking about all the rugby without both having to worry about what the other was. thought!
“I have not proposed to be the villain,” Eddie tells me. 'The media are a large part of the game and if there is an opportunity to help your team win, you want to do it.
Eddie Jones insists that he has not set out to be a villain, or a José Mourinho -style coach
Sport Mail Dan Biggar columnist meets former England chief coach Jones
The couple faced opposed sides when Jones trained Australia and England
'Sometimes it works, sometimes not. You were that type of player yourself. You would absolutely do anything to win.
Eddie's meaningless methods, especially in his time with England, have seen him reach the headlines. In the past, it has been described as José Mourinho's rugby equivalent because some believe it can have an immediate impact on a team before its influence decreases.
The former scrum of England, Danny Care, said that working under Jones was “how to live in a dictatorship” and that “all were terrified of him.”
From Mourinho's comparison, Eddie says: 'I don't think it's correct. Look at the teams I have trained: Brumbies, Australia, England for seven years, that is not a splash and voila.
'That (compare with Mourinho) is the story and that's fine. It is good that people say it, but it is not true. Sale books, take a look at attention.
'I went to buy one of his books and you can't, they are exhausted! You probably have not been dropped too many times in your life, they give, but one thing I have learned as a coach is as soon as you tell a player who has dropped, he does not listen to the rest of the conversation.
'They go to their own world. I know myself. The first time that Australia fired me in 2005, he took me for two years until I could reflect and accept the responsibility myself.
'During the first two years, I wanted to blame everyone, but I was control. When you finish a player's international race, it never ends well. I remember that with Danny Care, we played Japan in 2018. We played terrible Bloody and I had to bring all the reserves at the beginning of the second half.
Jones has been an ITV expert during the six nations, before returning to his work in Japan.
Jones responded to Danny Care's claims about his training methods while he was with England
Jones says he thought he had a good relationship with attention before the comments came out
'At the end of that game, I realized that we had been in a good career, but I could feel that I was beginning to fall a little. I had to update the team and care was one. Not because I was a bad boy or a bad player, but because we needed something different at that stage. Do not look back with that with friendly thoughts.
'I have not seen it. I always found it as a really excellent guy. I thought we had a good relationship, so it was a bit surprising. These things happen.
My conversation with Eddie makes me realize that I would have prospered under his guide, since we are cut from the same fabric in terms of our competitiveness and desire to be the best every day. However, I must admit that I am a little surprised when he tells me that he would have played in the inner center.
Does Eddie bother what players think about him? “If I'm absolutely honest, I don't care,” he says. 'In society we are going through a stage in which everything is a loved one. That's what Instagram and Facebook are about.
'It used to be a prosperous. All I want to do is my best. Sometimes I have not done that, but I am happy with the work I have done, I can be happy. The reality of a team environment is that, above all, it is uncomfortable.
“Whenever you win, you just have to find a way to keep the flame burning.”
Eddie sees a parallel with Pep Guardiola. “Look at Manchester City,” he says. 'They have won everything for four years and then maybe they are wrong a couple of things. Now is: “Can the best coach in the world change it?”
'One of the best meetings I had in my career was with Louis Van Gaal, who trained all the great football clubs. He gave a simple explanation of Coaching.
Jones sees a parallel with himself as coach and pep guardiola, no Mourinho
Insists that the game should play in several ways, since sometimes it bores it now
'He said that if a circle is a vision of how you want to play, look at your players. You can realize that you can only play half a circle. You try to build towards the complete circle. That is very true. You must know how you want to play, but understand the group you have and your ability to do so.
'Some coaches have the only style and train that wherever they go. I certainly have a strong philosophy about how I think the game should be trained.
'I have trained teams to have a high kick game, such as England. I have trained Japan to have a high career game. I played for Randwick in Australia and we had a philosophy that we wanted to play on the opposition, flat to the line and keep the ball at stake as much as possible. I still think that this is the way of playing.
'I went to a working class school, but I was lucky to play with a couple of guys called The Brothers. Mark was the Lionel Messi of Rugby.
'It was a monster. We won everything and that is why they entered the Wallabies. That changed the Australian rugby from more elitist to working class. That has led me to demonstrate that any of any walk of life can do what you want.
'I want to produce a good team that plays differently. The game needs teams to play in different ways. Sometimes, I must admit that I get bored now watching rugby. He is so cookie cutter. Everyone plays in the same way.
'What I love about Top 14 is that there are different styles. You can see every time Toulouse carries the ball, its intention is not to create a ruck. His intention is to keep the ball alive and his support corridors are much more active as a result.
'I want to produce such a team. Now I am 65 years old and I keep training. I am very lucky.
Jones lost his job with Australia after the 2023 World Cup, when they went out to the group
My team of Wales ended Australia's hopes in France in 2023 with a 40-6 hammer in Lyon
Almost three years have passed since Eddie left England's work. Now he returned with Japan again, after a second period with Australia that ended badly in the 2023 World Cup.
In our conversation, he tells me that he is still dreaming of being a Crickt coach in the Indian Premier League, and why he has been using a Tottenham hat in recent weeks to support his partner Australian Ange Postecoglou, which is under pressure in The Spurs. .
His experience and range of narration narratives is impressive and, in many ways, he is surreal for me to interview him because in 2003, when he was 14 the World Cup of that year. He was at the stadium in Sydney when Jonny Wilkinson left the goal in the final to win the tournament for England.
The Australian coach that day? Eddie Jones.
At the end of 2022, Steve Borthwick took over Eddie with England, and the victory of his 26-25 team over France last Saturday has really thrown the cat among the pigeons for these six nations.
Eddie trained England for the 2019 World Cup final. He could not take his team on the line, but, for me, he has always been a brilliant coach and an intriguing character. “Everyone flew smoke in the week before the final,” says Eddie. 'You couldn't help listening to it. I was trying to achieve the right balance, but I could not do it and assumed all the responsibility.
'I wanted to change the team, but I had a battle with the coaches attending about it. Sometimes I am the worst dictator because I don't listen to myself! You can never recover it.
'What I try to do is get the best of each player, and for each individual there is a different way of doing so. Can you make a horse run faster? Of course you can. But what you don't want to do is press them too much or be too soft with them. It's about achieving that correct balance.
'Sometimes I am the worst dictator,' admits Jones, since he does not listen to his own advice
Jones is supporting England to do it just below Steve Borthwick in the long term
'I remember coming next to England and there was a player with whom he would talk and every time he would have talked to him, his eyes would roll.
Obviously he had never been trained. So, I had to find a different way to train it. What I did when I needed to talk to him was that he would send all the statistics and data where he was and ask him to become a couple of days later. I would identify and solve the problem.
'Steve is in the third year of his work. He is trying to build his team. It is at that difficult time when some of the older players leave (from the team) and have some young people who enter that they are not consistent enough.
'It is not easy. England was criticized for his exhibition against Ireland, but they had the courage to take the game to them. They could not do enough time, but they did well for a period. I liked that kind of courage and that is why they will be fine in the long term.
Now listen to Dan Biggar's full interview with Eddie Jones in the new series of a BS load in sport through Spotify.