Final piece of Erasmus’ World Cup puzzle in place as Jones joins the Springboks
The final piece of Rassie Erasmus’ Rugby World Cup puzzle was slotted into place on Wednesday with the formal announcement that former Ireland international Felix Jones had joined the coaching staff.
Jones‚ 32‚ played 13 times for Ireland at fullback and wing but was forced into early retirement due to injury.
He worked with Erasmus at Munster and has been employed on a short-term contract after Swys de Bruin’s departure two weeks ago.
Although De Bruin was the team’s attack coach‚ Jones has been employed with the specific role of ‘defence analyst’.
It is not a like-for-like replacement.
The players are comfortable with the attacking blueprint laid out by De Bruin and with three weeks to their World Cup opening game they did not want a new approach to attack.
There is no time to change anything now.
So Erasmus and the players will stick to the attacking structure they have already worked out.
Jacques Nienaber remains defence coach‚ but Jones has been hired to plot ways through opposing defences.
The appointment does raise some queries. If De Bruin has not withdrawn from the coaching staff for personal reasons‚ who would be doing the defence analysis that Jones has been employed to do?
And if the players can work from a blueprint that De Bruin formulated‚ would he have been needed at the World Cup‚ had he been available?
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Erasmus indicated that the De Bruin's situation presented and opportunity to do things slightly differently.
“I spoke to the players after Swys decided to step down and the consensus was that we didn’t want a new attack coach‚” said Erasmus.
“The feeling was that bringing in someone in that role now with new ideas now would be destabilising at this last stage of the preparations.
“But they were interested in having more analysis of defensive patterns and structures to assist in breaking down the opposition.”
Erasmus said that he was fortunate that Jones was available at a time when most coaches were already engaged at club or international level.
Jones‚ 32‚ had a ten-year playing career with Leinster and Munster. He was part of Ireland’s 2015 Six Nations title-winning squad and also represented his country at the Sevens Rugby World Cup in 2009.
He stopped playing at the age of 28 and went straight into coaching with his last province‚ Munster‚ where he helped the team to three consecutive Heineken Cup semi-finals before leaving the province earlier this year.
In 2017 he was as an assistant coach to the Irish national coaching team for their summer tour.
“Felix will bring a fresh eye to our analysis and planning and I am looking forward to his input‚” said Erasmus.
“He is a real student of the game and I believe the players will benefit from his contribution.”