‘Preparation is everything’: the real Eddie Jones’s hard road to Japan

In helping England’s coach write his autobiography Donald McRae has gained a unique insight into the uncompromising AustralianThree years ago Eddie Jones surprised me for the first of many times. We met to discuss how we would work together on a book which was still a shadowy idea in the autumn of 2016. In those strange early days of our collaboration I was still trying to figure out Jones. I had heard stories about his abrasive coaching style, which had apparently left a trail of players weeping and hiding under tables from Canberra to Tokyo. I had also heard his whiplash quips and spiky insi…