Felix Jones has hailed Rassie Erasmus’ influence on his career, but dismissed notions of adopting the SA director of rugby’s out-the-box tactics in his new job with England.
Jones this week began his role as England assistant coach, having agreed to return to the UK following the 2023 World Cup.
The former Munster back was a key member of Erasmus’ coaching unit since 2018, helping the Springboks win back-to-back World Cup titles for the first time in their history.
Jones has taken England’s defence coach role and quoted in an article on The Telegraph, the 36-year-old shared his experiences alongside tacticians like Erasmus while addressing the South Africans’ approach to the game.
“I was very lucky when I first went into coaching. I had a number of guys that were very influential for me, guys like Rassie to begin with, Anthony Foley, Joe Schmidt. the coaching network is actually quite open to talking about it,” Jones said.
“So you end up having quite a wealth of people that can just help you along the way. Everyone shapes you a little bit differently and you take little bits from them all.
PLUS: Boks to face Portugal in Bloem
“Everyone there [in South Africa] is very open and understands what professional rugby is. There is nothing to talk about really. Most teams are looking at other teams and seeing what certain teams do well. Not all of it is transferable. New Zealand can only play like New Zealand. South Africa can only play like South Africa. Ireland can only play like Ireland.
“But there are certain smaller things you can potentially tweak or amend to suit the way you want to play.”
Erasmus pulled out one of his old plays from his Free State days with the Boks in their 2023 World Cup opener against Scotland, when he and Jones caught the attention of the cameras by communicating from the coaches’ box using coloured lights.
On the unique method and Erasmus’ innovation, Jones explained: “That type of thing was trying to find different ways of doing things that could optimise communication. The context of it is probably lost on most people except for the people who are directly involved and understand it.
“Most coaching teams are trying, maybe not like that, to find ways of gaining a tactical advantage or doing something in their environment that can improve learning or engaging people with other expertise to do it better. That was a different way of doing it. I don’t think you will be seeing it at Twickenham.”