Eddie Jones sets his sights on Gareth Southgate’s England football job
EDDIE JONES has his sights on the job of ANOTHER England boss . . . Gareth Southgate!
The Red Rose rugby chief joked he fancies swapping Twickenham for Wembley one day to take over from the Three Lions boss.
Jones is a massive football fan and picked Southgate’s brains after he led the national side to last year’s World Cup semi-final.
But the Aussie hopes his England go one better this autumn as he chases our first world title since 2003.
'I WANT TO COACH ENGLAND AT FOOTBALL'
Jones, 59, revealed: “I want to coach England at football — I reckon that would be the greatest job in the world.
“It would be fantastic . . . just give me six months to sort them out.”
Jones is big mates with legendary Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola — who he first met when the Spaniard was in charge of Bayern Munich.
And his search for an extra edge ahead of the World Cup in Japan, which starts in September, has also taken him to Chelsea, Arsenal and Southampton during his 3½-year England reign.
Jones took his 38-man preliminary squad to Treviso this week for a dose of warm-weather training.
His off-the-wall idea of working in the beautiful game may not be as mad as it sounds.
STOMACH CHURNING
World Cup-winning boss Clive Woodward shocked the sports world by joining Southampton as technical director in 2005 — but lasted just over a year at St Mary’s before he was sacked.
Jones added: “To coach rugby, you have to be crazy, that’s a given. Sometimes on the drive to a game I think, ‘s***, there must be a better way of earning a living than this!’
“Your stomach is churning and you’re worried about a certain player and worried about things. But at the end of the day, that’s the excitement.”
Jones has also sought out tips from GB hockey coaches and Tour de France cycling teams in his quest to get England rugby to number one in the world.
LATEST SPORTS NEWS
Earlier this summer, he even recruited the national DODGEBALL team to give his players some insight into their evasive skills.
England will play four warm-up Tests before they face Tonga in the Pool C opener on September 22.
The first two are against Wales at Twickenham a fortnight today — a day before Jones names his final 31-man squad for Japan — and in Cardiff on August 17.