Eddie Jones

Why organisations work with Eddie Jones

• Thirty years of head-coach experience at the top of international sport, tested against the sharpest public scrutiny three national rugby unions can apply.
• A working account, set out in his 2021 book “Leadership: Lessons From My Life in Rugby”, of how to raise standards, rebuild confidence, and hold a team accountable when results are not yet on the board.
• Authored the single most studied upset in modern rugby: Japan’s 34-32 win over South Africa at the 2015 World Cup, the “Brighton Miracle”, built over three years of culture and conditioning work.
• World Rugby Coach of the Year 2017, after leading England to a Grand Slam and a record run of consecutive Test wins.
• A rare speaker who has built and rebuilt teams in three different national cultures (Japanese, Australian, English) and can translate between them for executive audiences.

Biography highlights

• Head coach of England 2015 to 2022: first non-British coach, two Six Nations titles, 2016 Grand Slam, 2019 Rugby World Cup final.
• World Rugby Coach of the Year, 2017.
• Head coach of Japan 2012 to 2015, re-appointed December 2023.
• Head coach of Australia 2001 to 2005, leading the Wallabies to the 2003 Rugby World Cup final.
• Head coach of the ACT Brumbies, Super Rugby champions 2001.
• Technical adviser to the Springboks’ 2007 Rugby World Cup-winning squad.
• Author of “Leadership: Lessons From My Life in Rugby” (Macmillan, 2021) and “My Life and Rugby: The Autobiography” (Macmillan, 2019).

Biography

Japan beat South Africa 34-32 in Brighton in September 2015. The squad had been together three years, trained to a schedule their opponents would not recognise, and made the late call to turn down a draw for a winning try. The head coach was Eddie Jones.

That match is the cleanest single case study in his career, but not the only one. Jones has held senior head-coach roles with Japan, Australia, and England, reached two Rugby World Cup finals, served as technical adviser to a third World Cup-winning team, and won a Super Rugby title with the Brumbies in 2001. The through line is not a single style. It is a method for taking on teams that are underperforming relative to their resources, setting a higher standard than the group thinks it can meet, and holding it.

His 2021 book, “Leadership: Lessons From My Life in Rugby”, makes that method explicit. It draws on the 2015 Japan campaign, the 2016 England turnaround, and the failures in between to argue that elite performance is a daily discipline of selection, feedback, and standard-setting, not a product of talent or motivation. Jones was named World Rugby Coach of the Year in 2017 after leading England to a Grand Slam and a run of consecutive Test wins second only to the All Blacks.

For a senior audience, the value is in the translation. Three national cultures, three turnarounds, one argument about how leaders behave when the team is not yet winning. That is what he brings into a room.

Key speaking topics

• Leadership under pressure and public scrutiny
• Building and turning around elite teams
• Standards, accountability, and high-performance culture
• Decision-making in compressed time frames
• Cross-cultural leadership across international organisations
• Talent development and succession

Ideal for

• Boards and executive committees leading a turnaround or performance reset
• CEO and C-suite offsites on standards and accountability
• CHRO and people leaders working on high-performance culture at scale
• Sales and commercial leadership teams operating in competitive, results-measured environments

Audience outcomes

• A clearer view of what separates elite teams from good ones in day-to-day behaviour
• Specific examples of how standards are set, reinforced, and recovered when they slip
• A model for leading through scrutiny without losing the team
• Practical reference points from three national turnarounds, not one
• Language for talking to executives about accountability without euphemism