"The incumbent Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer’s complaint about the lack of skills in South African players would probably draw a concurring nod from Eddie Jones – but he believes it is never too late to coach skills into even an experienced professional player and he intends to prove it in his new position as head coach of the Stormers.
The former Wallabies and Brumbies coach has only spent a week in the Cape since arriving to take the helm of the region’s premier rugby team, but he has seen enough of South African rugby over the years to know what is required to bring the attacking dimension that has too often been missing both at franchise and national level.
Without ever using the word in either his top table press conference or in the one-on-one interview Supersport.com conducted with him afterwards, it is clear that revolution is on Jones’ mind. A revolution in terms of how the players approach and view the game and what they are prepared to try on the field.
“One of the things that has always been obvious about South African teams to me when I have coached against them is that they are often happier without the ball,” said Jones.
“They prefer to give you the ball, and then they will smash you and try and feed off your mistakes. We have to have courage to play off our own ball. We have to have confidence to carry the ball and try things. That does have to be coached. The players have to be equipped with skills to play ball-in-hand, attacking rugby. It doesn’t just happen.
“But when you have equipped them with that skill set, then you can expect them to be confident to have a go when it is on. Even if you are just five metres out from your own line you can have a go and run it if you have a five against three situation and it is therefore on to do so. I know enough about Western Province to know that the WP tradition is to play attacking rugby.
“In the past few years the Stormers were known for a very strong defensive system. That was the strength they relied on and it was the way they played. It was reasonably successful because under Allister Coetzee the Stormers managed to win three out of five conference titles. But we want to retain that defensive strength and add an attacking dimension to it.”
For years there have been local coaches, not just Meyer, who have justified the implementation of percentage tactics on the argument that South African players just don’t have the skills to play any other way. Jones, now 55 and widely travelled as a coach since making his debut at professional level with the Brumbies in 1998, feels that is a defeatist argument.
“No-one is naturally skilful,” he says. “Everyone has to be coached or taught and there is no reasons why South African players can’t be skilful.”
Jones agrees that it does make it harder to impart those skills to players who are already professional and have been around the block a few times, but he cites two examples that disprove the theory that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks.
“It does make it harder when you get to this point, it is easier to teach kids, and that really is where it should be starting, but it is possible to teach them skills once they are professional. Just look at All Black centre Ma’a Nonu and (Bok flanker) Schalk Burger.
“When Nonu started he was a crash 'em and bash 'em kind of centre. He had his strengths, but all round he was a limited and one dimensional kind of player. But later on he was developed into a centre that could kick into space, who could pass the ball wonderfully, and who could make great attacking decisions. In the beginning Schalk was a ball scavenger like Richie McCaw, but now he’s one of the most skilful flankers in the game.”
The first thing that will have to change if South African rugby is going to shake off the shackles and equip itself to be a better attacking force, says Jones, is the mindset. In a nutshell, coaches need to start doing what they are employed to do.
“In South Africa I think there has been a tendency to pigeonhole players. There is a steady supply of talent, so very quickly a coach will decide that a talented player coming through has some flaw in his game and then he will be dispensed with in favour of the next player on the conveyor-belt. They will say ‘he can’t pass’ or ‘he can’t kick’ so they’ll get rid of him instead of working with him.
“In Australia it is different because you just don’t have a big supply line of players, so you have to work with a player who is flawed and remove those flaws through coaching. It is even more that way in Japan. An example of a South African player who does have a weakness is Eben Etzebeth. He can’t pass. But that doesn’t mean he can’t be taught to pass.”
A lot of what Jones is planning might sound ambitious. For instance, he admits that the Stormers may lack the experienced heads in the backline, and says “we may have to develop it”. However, it is not as if he is coming to the Stormers as an overseas coach who has just gauged the talent and the issues from afar. He was part of Jake White’s winning management team when the Boks last won the World Cup in 2007.
“The one thing that struck me in 2007 was how coachable the players were,” said Jones.
“I was impressed and surprised by their real desire to learn. They were thirsty for knowledge. That is what I want to do at the Stormers – I want to create a learning environment. I want players who are thirsty for knowledge.”
Jones admits that a big challenge initially at the Stormers is going to be the adjustment from the low expectation culture in Japan to the high expectation environment in the Western Cape that has made the Stormers and WP job so difficult for some of his predecessors.
“What was exciting in Japan was that I was taking over a joke team and trying to turn it into something. I had to introduce a culture, a mindset and a player style. The time is right for cultural and playing style change at the Stormers now because we have a young team. It is just a case of us needing to put the processes in place.
“But there will be an adjustment needed by me as there was no expectation in Japan. You were expected to lose every game. When you won a game it came as a big surprise. I know all about the expectations at the Stormers. It is a union that craves success and it is demanded by the media, supporters and by the board.
“That is where my handling of the media is going to be important. Luckily I have Gert (Smal) to handle the board in his capacity as Director of Rugby. The pressure that is brought to bear on a coach comes from the media, fans and the board. It is all interlinked. Hopefully if I can deal with the media well and Gert can handle the other stuff for me, some of that pressure will be off me.”
Jones has become renowned not only for his ability to handle the media in his various jobs around the globe, but also his willingness to use the media to get an advantage over opponents, often doubling that with a thrust geared towards selling the game. Will he be doing that in the more sensitive South African rugby environment?
“I am going to have to judge it. In Japan, and particularly in Australia, there is a need for a coach to sell the game, but here rugby is the No 1 sport so maybe you don’t have to sell it here quite as much,” he says.
“This is rugby country so I think I have to give good information to the media. But there will be opportunities through the media to put pressure on various areas of the opponent's game, and I will judge that when it arrives.”
Jones will be trying to fast-track the Stormers to where he wants them to be in Super Rugby by dovetailing the conditioning with skills work during the off-season summer months. It may be during that phase of the build-up that he will become better acquainted with what the squad’s strengths are and where the weaknesses may be.
For now though he seems happy to go in with the players he has in certain key areas where the Stormers may be short, most notably openside flank and flyhalf. Smal tried unsuccessfully to secure the signature of the Sharks’ Marcell Coetzee to fill one hole, and Racing Metro-based Johan Goosen was priced out of the market when it came to the quest to bring him to Cape Town to play No 10.
Jones wouldn’t say no if an experienced player in either position fell into his lap, but for now he is looking forward to working with young flyhalf Robert du Preez, while Rynhardt Elstadt, if he can stay uninjured, can look forward to being converted into the Stormers’ version of David Pocock.
“We’re not looking for newcomers there at this stage. It is going to be difficult because the No 6 flank does require a certain skillset, but that is where the coaching is going to have to come in. We just have to get a guy like Elstadt to be better over the ball, teach him new things. We will be looking to work hard at that during the off-season.”
One thing that Jones is sure about is that there’s no reason the Stormers shouldn’t be able to embrace the revolutionary change that he intends driving.
“One of the things that made this last World Cup particularly healthy was the refereeing, with the referees being brilliant at the scrums and in rewarding both good attack and defence. I think that was the most important factor in ensuring that the World Cup went off so well, and the best two teams played in the final.
“But what was also significant was the conditions that much of the tournament were played in. The fields were firm and fast. South Africa has conditions that promote the playing of that kind of rugby. It is dry and fast here, and yet South African teams often play the least amount of rugby. I’m looking forward to the challenge of changing that. There is no reason why the Stormers can’t evolve into a great attacking team that the fans really enjoy watching.”
And if the revolution works in the Cape, who says it can't spread to other areas of South Africa."
I highlighted two things that Jones said which is never understood by some members of the site - when they write on this site, Strategic kicking as an alternative strategy is fine. As a constant means of handing over ball possession to the opposition through inaccurate and aimless kicking is an abortion of what rugby as a sport represents. That is why players like the Steyns are such an impediment in the game played in SA.
Jones realizes where the Stromers game plan fell flat in the past. You cannot play rugby with a backline where over the last two years only one player really contributed - namely Damian de Allende. For the rest the backline was totally inadequate with dummies like De Jongh and Leyds in the mix and suffering from incompetence iro of flyhalfs.
I can foresee a situation where Kolbe is moved to scrumhalf and where Senatla is tested as a wing - but the question remains is the latter a 7's specialist. I can also foresee that younger and more competent players come to the fore in the Stormers backline.
Despite the loss of Kitshoff and bearing in mind the acquisition of Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jones inherited one of the best forward packs in Super Rugby - the problem always was with the dud backline of the Stormers.
That is where the real "revolution" will take place. It may not happen in 2016 already - but the effects will be felt for years t come.
