Fast Eddie and Mitch: A tale of two coaches

7:51 pm on 16 March 2018

It was a pass that changed everything. Unfortunately for the All Blacks, even though it left the hands of All Black Carlos Spencer, it landed in those of Wallaby Stirling Mortlock. 80 metres later, the big centre dived under the posts and shattered the World Cup semi-final hopes of New Zealand.

Eddie Jones, left, and John Mitchell

Eddie Jones, left, and John Mitchell Photo: RNZ / Photosport

That was 2003. It's been a long time since that night at Olympic Park in Sydney, which more or less shattered the international coaching career of John Mitchell as well. In the other coaching box was Eddie Jones, who had to endure his moment of heartbreak a week later when the Wallabies went down to England in the final.

Now, almost 15 years later, Jones and Mitchell have an interesting weekend ahead. Both are still coaching, but to paraphrase the latter's infamous motivational speak, it's been a long journey for both.

Right now, Jones finds himself coming under fire from all quarters after losing two games on the trot at the helm of England, as well as getting snapped defaming Ireland and Wales at a corporate event. He faces a make or break match to save face against Ireland at Twickenham on Sunday morning, after going from talk of a probable knighthood to rumours of being banished back to the colonies.

The fall from grace for the man who led England to 22 wins in 23 tests hasn't, for Southern Hemisphere rugby pundits anyway, come as much of a surprise.

England can't say they weren't warned - Jones has a habit of being quite good for a couple of years then flaming out. After the 2003 World Cup final appearance, he was hailed as the long-term man in charge of Australian rugby. Bear in mind this was when the Wallabies were actually really good.

That tenure came to an abrupt halt in 2005, when the Wallabies slumped to eight defeats out of nine matches on their northern hemisphere tour.

From there he bounced around and ended up as Japanese head coach, and was largely forgotten about until his triumphant return to prominence when the Brave Blossoms beat the Springboks. He was offered the England role, and struck gold with a fine crop of players and a reasonably easy schedule that saw them clock up a record number of test victories and an unbeaten season.

Then came two defeats at the hands of the fired-up Scots and lowly French, and suddenly Jones is in the sights of basically anyone with an opinion on English rugby.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, John Mitchell's Bulls have slipped into Hamilton with little fanfare. They've started the season with a win and two losses, and should probably provide the Chiefs with a victory coming off their bye week.

Hamilton is where Mitchell made his name as a player, and the Chiefs have extended a respectful acknowledgment to him via social media. However, his reputation among most All Black fans is about the same as Jones' in England right now - hence why he's had to spend his entire career since working overseas.

Mitchell won few friends in his time as All Black coach, with a strained relationship with the media not helping matters when he didn't select Christian Cullen at fullback during the World Cup. The fact that he was dumped so swiftly after the semifinal loss, despite having an 82 percent winning record, says an awful lot about what his employers thought of him by that stage too (contrast that to Sir Graham Henry, who kept his job for another four years after a quarterfinal knockout at the next World Cup).

The similarities between both Mitchell and Jones' careers since that fateful night in Sydney are too big to ignore, though. Both have had run-ins with the unions and clubs they've ended up with. Both have coached Tier 2 nations, and arguably left before they'd completed the job of developing them into proper contenders. Jones has the upper hand, reputation-wise, due to his success with England - however that's all in danger of being flushed away with a third successive Six Nations defeat this weekend.

His journey looks more and more likely to end up back where it started, at the helm of the Wallabies. A loss this weekend might even see that happening before the next World Cup.

Meanwhile, it would take some sort of miracle to see Mitchell back coaching at the top level back in New Zealand any time soon. However, if he can guide the Bulls to some good performances on their trip over here, that'd be a good start on a long journey back.

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