All Blacks great reveals what it’s like coaching alongside ‘experienced operator’ Eddie Jones with Japan
Japan boss Eddie Jones (inset) and Owen Franks who is one of the Brave Blossoms' assistant coaches.
Former All Blacks front-row Owen Franks has revealed how he has transitioned from his playing career to become a coach and what it’s like to work alongside Japan head coach Eddie Jones.
Franks is an assistant coach for the Brave Blossoms where he is helping them with their set-piece, particularly their scrums.
He represented the All Blacks as a tighthead prop in 108 Tests between 2009 and 2019 and won back-to-back Rugby World Cups in 2011 and 2015.
At club level, he enjoyed two stints with the Crusaders between 2009 and 2024, making more than 150 appearances for the Christchurch-based outfit.
He also had stints with Northampton Saints in England, the Hurricanes in New Zealand and Toulouse in France before finishing his career with the Crusaders at the end of the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season.
Jones then lured him to assist Japan with their set-piece, and although he initially had his doubts about switching to coaching – as it happened immediately after finishing his playing career – Franks does not regret making that decision.
“It’s happened really fast. In hindsight, when you hear about a lot of rugby players transitioning, that I think it was the best thing to get a new focus straight away, even though I didn’t know whether it’d be for me or not,” he told the What a Lad podcast.
“It was an opportunity too good to pass up just with what I thought I could learn and get out of coaching with Japan, especially under Eddie Jones and Neal Hatley (Japan’s forwards coach), two obviously really experienced operators in the coaching world.
“I’m, I’m really happy I did.
‘It was a nice way to move on from playing rugby’
“It was, it was a nice way to move on from playing rugby but still stay in that realm and learn on the job really.”
Jones is one of the most experienced coaches in the international arena, as this is his second coaching stint with the Brave Blossoms and he also had spells in charge of Australia and England.
Franks was asked what it’s like to work with Jones and replied: “Awesome. Really good. The work ethic of the guy is unbelievable, (he’s) just a total student of the game.
“He has high expectations, which I went in there expecting, but also as a young coach, he’s, I’m not sure what the right word would be, but there’s been a few times where I’ve made mistakes and I certainly haven’t had the experience of what you might hear in the paper.
“But like anyone who expects high things, sure there’s times when someone might get a tough word, but probably what you don’t read in the paper or hear about is that he will have his arm around that guy a minute or so later, having a laugh.
“He’s that sort of character and I’ve got a lot of respect for him.”
Franks revealed that the opportunity to work as a coach with a Tier One Test nation came as a surprise to him, and he isn’t exactly sure why he was approached for the job so soon after his retirement as a player.
‘It was sent out there in the universe somehow’
“I actually don’t know how that opportunity came about. It’s very strange. It was sent out there in the universe somehow,” he said.
“The only thing I think maybe is I had a conversation with my agent around what I was going to do post rugby at the time, actually I had the option to potentially stay here (in Christchurch with the Crusaders) another year.
“But I mentioned to him, ‘Look, I’d like to get into coaching, (but) not in the traditional sense’, right off the bat.
“You know, I always saw guys with their heads in the laptops, reviewing clips. And I’m like, ‘I’m not sure whether that’s for me, but I would like to coach the scrum and I would like to work more personally with the players around their professionalism’.
“How they set up their week training just standards and habits, things that I prided myself on and somehow out of the blue I got a call from my agent and said, Japan wanted me as an assistant forwards coach, but mainly looking after the scrum and a role where I would be basically accountable for the front-row group and how they set up their week, how they train, along those sort of lines.
“So that’s where I’m at.”
Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.
READ MORE: Loose Pass: Scott Robertson ‘copying’ the Springboks is ‘weighing’ on the All Blacks