Eddie Jones dares to dream of another Miracle of Brighton
Believe him or not, Eddie Jones reckons a repeat of the Miracle of Brighton is on the cards when his Japanese team faces the Springboks at Wembley on Saturday.
Jones pulled off the upset of the century in the opening round of the 2015 World Cup when Japan beat Heyneke Meyer’s Boks 34-32 at the Brighton Stadium. That was the same tournament where hosts England failed to advance from their pool — and the ever-confident Jones effectively wrote his own cheque for the England job when their coach, Stuart Lancaster, was sacked.
Since then, Jones has had a roller-coaster career. It began with a strong run of success with England before the wheels came off and he was fired. He returned to his native Australia for a second stint with the Wallabies, but that ended disastrously at the 2023 World Cup when his team failed to make the quarter-finals for the first time in history.
Now he is back in Japan and full of gusto after his Brave Blossoms came close to beating the Wallabies in Tokyo last week. Australia won 19-15 but were hanging on at the end as the hosts stormed back from a 3-14 half-time deficit.
Japan now face the Springboks in London, and Jones senses the mother of all upsets against the world champions.
“I think this team is a better team than the 2015 team — I think they’ve got the potential to be better,” Jones told reporters as he cast his mind back to Brighton.
“We’re going to London thinking we can win. South Africa are like everyone else: you get in their face, put pressure on them, and they can make mistakes. That’s what we intend to do.”
Jones believes that reprising the Brighton win ten years later at the most famous stadium in England could be even more memorable.
“Wembley’s a good stadium to do it at,” said the Australian. “Imagine beating South Africa at Wembley — that would be iconic. That would be as big as the Coldplay concerts there.”
Jones’ optimism stems from his team’s fightback against the Wallabies.
“We don’t go away, we stay in there, we keep going,” he said. “I think for a young team we can take a lot of positives from it.
“I’m disappointed with the result, but in terms of the performance and the fight, it’s a real step up for us again. We can take on the best in the world and compete.”
He added: “We want to repeat the game that we played in the second half for the full 80 minutes against South Africa. That’s our challenge.”
Japan will also face Ireland, Wales and Georgia during their European tour.
