Jacques Nienaber hailed Felix Jones’ influence on the Springboks set-up and is not surprised by how he has adapted to his new position with England.
The Irishman joined the Boks ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup and played a big role in them going back-to-back at successive global tournaments.
South Africa lifted the Webb Ellis Cup in both 2019 and 2023, with Jones taking charge of the attack.
He has since left the world champions for England where he is attempting to revolutionise the Red Rose defence.
‘Full-on attack’
Nienamber said to the Irish Mirror, “I’ve never experienced him as a defense coach; he was attack coach for South Africa.”
“He was a full-on attacker in our setup for the last Rugby World Cup in South Africa; he didn’t even coach defence. His involvement was limited to the attack.
“I will probably meet up with him now after the Six Nations, but I didn’t speak with him during that time.”
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Throughout the Six Nations, England’s players got better and a clearer understanding of their defensive duties.
The Red Rose have shown a clear development during the recent tournament but Nienaber is not taking any credit for Jones’ success.
“The first thing was his preparation and his work ethic was next level, he made sure that the players were prepared and knew what was coming up,” the ex-Boks boss said.
“I don’t want to give too much away but I think when he came in, in 2019, he only literally joined us in the World Cup, so he met us when we played the warm up game against Japan.
“So the lads didn’t know him, he just did the World Cup with us and, obviously, we had a win there.
“And then after that, Covid happened and then British and Irish Lions in 2021, for which we probably went a couple of steps back, because we wanted to beat the British and Irish Lions.”
Influence in 2022 and 2023
Although most people think that the Springboks’ set-piece and defense are their strongest suits, Nienaber believed that their attacking efforts were a major factor in their most recent World Cup victory.
Jones wasn’t actually allowed to make a significant impact until after their British and Irish Lions victory in 2021, though Nienaber thought it would be evident in 2022 and 2023.
“I believe that Felix truly assumed leadership of our attack in 2022, as that was the time he could begin expressing his creativity in his desired offensive maneuvers,” he continued.
“I believed there was a lot of creativity by the end of 2023 that most people probably wouldn’t have noticed.” but if you think now on the quarter-final of the World Cup, South Africa taking a quick tap-penalty is probably something unheard of.
“For our last try, Eben Etzebeth’s score that actually won us the quarter-final against France, I think there’s a lot of innovation that he brought in there.”
