Eddie Jones adamant he is the man to coach the Wallabies and denies link to Japan

The under-fire Wallabies coach fronted the media for more than 22 minutes in Sydney on Tuesday, shooting down claims he is set to take over as coach of Japan after reportedly being interviewed by Japanese officials days before Australia's final World Cup warm-up match.

Jones denied he had been in talks with Japanese rugby officials or any recruitment agencies in regards to taking over the Brave Blossoms role.

Speculation is likely to follow until Japan appoints a new coach. When asked why fans should believe him after Jones was in 2015 unveiled as the Stormers' Super Rugby coach and denied links to England, only to quit and take the English job eight days later, Jones said: "That's a different situation mate".

Jones doubled down on the youth policy he adopted heading into the World Cup despite the Wallabies being knocked out in the pool stages for the first time in the tournament's 36-year history, adamant the players left behind had already been "maxed out".

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"Obviously we've got to do a review, the results were disappointing and everyone is gutted by it, especially myself. I stand by the decisions we've made, and I think we've left Australian rugby in a better position," Jones said.

"You've just got to watch the quarter-finals of the weekend, and we're not at that level and we can't pretend to be at that level. Can we be at that level by 2027? Yes we can.

"If you just look at the number of players we took to the World Cup, the number of players that have still got to reach their peak, I'll just go through it: [Angus] Bell, [Taniela] Tupou, [Nick] Frost, [Rob] Valetini, [Tom] Hooper, [Fraser] McReight, [Tate] McDermott, [Ben] Donaldson, Mark [Nawaqanitawase], [Max] Jorgensen.

"There's a number of players there that are just at the start of their international careers. Most of them showed during that World Cup they've got enough to go forward and be very good players for Australia. Then we throw in a few other players from around the place and we've got the nucleus of a really good team. That's the most positive thing."

A review led by independent consultants will now assess how well the Wallabies prepared for the World Cup and whether or not coaching staff maximised the resources at their disposal during the tournament.

Jones says the Wallabies' struggles in France may be the catalyst Australian rugby needs.

Rugby Australia is targeting a centralised model - despite resistance from the ACT Brumbies and Queensland - which would see the governing body take ownership of the five Super Rugby franchises.

The Brumbies have already agreed to centralise high-performance aspects under the Rugby Australia banner but club officials are refusing to give up the rights to their branding, logo and name.

Jones labelled centralisation "one person at the top telling everyone what to do", but says Australian rugby needs to be more aligned if the Wallabies are to be any chance of winning the World Cup on home soil in 2027.

"Over the period of time I've been away, we've got more and more fractured, and this is now the opportunity to get more and more aligned," Jones said.

"I've got the foresight to see where we need to go. This is not an unusual situation, you've got a team that was struggling for a period of time.

"You've got, underneath it, a system that's not supporting it. At some stage, you bottom out. This is the opportunity now to change the team as we've started to by picking younger players with bright futures, and we've got to look at the development system underneath as well.

"This is not a simple equation that the Wallabies are bad. Let's be serious about this, the Wallabies are not where they need to be, but underneath that, we need to fix the system to go forward. If we can do that now, we've got a rosy future.

"You've got to look at the quarter-finals and look where we're at. We're not at that level, and we need to get to that level. That can be done through hard work, it can be done through smart planning, it can be done through consistently thinking about world class standards. That's what we need to get to in Australian rugby.

"I didn't come back to Australia to have a holiday, sit down at Coogee beach, eat fish and chips, have a nice flat white. It was always going to be a battle. When you've got a team who hasn't done well for a long period of time, it's always a battle."

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