Sonny Bill Williams' brutal truth bomb for Japan rugby after Eddie Jones appointment

Sonny Bill Williams says former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones is 'full of crap' after the 63-year-old was unveiled as the new coach of Japan, a month after sensationally quitting the Wallabies job. Jones denied on multiple occasions that he was interested in the Japan role while in charge of the Wallabies, before stepping down following a dismal World Cup display.

The New Zealand international believes Jones' actions have burnt a lot of bridges and says he feels sorry for the Japanese players who have to play under him. "Obviously he lied to the players, he lied to the public, he lied to the Australian rugby union," Williams told Wide World of Sports. "What a disgrace... I feel sorry for Japan. His track record speaks for itself.

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"I guess I'm just speaking from an ex-player's point of view. I could never believe in someone that I knew was pretty much full of crap. Japanese culture is all built on respect, loyalty, things that he's shown that he's not about."

Japan's interest in Jones was well documented in September during Australia's shocking Rugby World Cup campaign where the Wallabies failed to make it out of the group stages for the first time - following losses to Fiji and Wales. Reports alleged Jones held a meeting with Japan Rugby right before the World Cup, claims at the time Jones furiously denied, insisting he was 100 per cent committed to the Wallabies.

"I take umbrage to people questioning my commitment to the Australia job," Jones said at the time. "My coaching hasn’t been good enough. I don’t need to worry about the future; just the Portuguese game. I have a contract, and at the end of the World Cup my performance will be reviewed, and at the minute it's not good enough."

Jones' deal was supposed to see him take Australia through to the 2027 World Cup on home soil. However, after the World Cup Jones left his role following a bizarre press conference where he claimed he was committed. Despite his denials that he was in communication with Japanese Rugby, he reportedly had a second interview last week and subsequently secured the role.

Stephen Moore says Jones was never committed to Wallabies role

Former Wallabies captain Stephen Moore says Jones wasn't ever truly committed to Australia during his second stint as coach of the national side. The Wallabies great also believes the speculation surrounding his future at the World Cup was a massive distraction for players.

“I know the players are going to be diplomatic because they’re still involved, but there’s no way that they wouldn’t have read and heard that stuff, and it does have an impact,” he said. “Of course, they’re going to try to block it out but the more of those kinds of things that you have, it has an impact on the team. For that whole World Cup, there was stuff written every day basically about (the Jones saga), so it’s very hard to avoid that as a player."

Moore - who made 129 appearances for the Wallabies - said Jones' second tenure was marred with constant uncertainty from the time he was appointed in January. "There have got to be question marks over (how long he was in talks with Japan) but it felt like from the whole time that Eddie wasn’t really fully committed to what he was doing, and there were always whispers about how long he was going to hang around for,” the former Wallabies captain said.

"Right from the start there was noise around whether he going to leave after the World Cup. Whether he was talking to Japan or not before the World Cup, it’s all just a moot point now because it’s unfolded the way it has. I wish him all the best. I hope he has a good time with Japan and they’re successful. It just didn’t work with the Wallabies for one reason or another, but we all have to move on now."

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