Felix’s work ethic and was next level
ALONG CAME JONES: Jacques Nienaber and Felix Jones working together with South Africa 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.”
It’s at this point Rassie Erasmus, having moved upstairs, Nienaber began to plot his RWC 2023 campaign.
“I would probably say Felix, in reality, took charge of our attack in 2022, that was when he could actually start being creative in the things that he wanted to do on attack.
“I thought by the back end of 2023 there was a lot of creativity, which people probably wouldn’t have seen but if you think now on the quarter-final of the World Cup, South Africa taking a quick tappenalty 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.”
Of course, Erasmus and Nienaber had Jones on their coaching ticket at Munster — it was his time on the training ground in Limerick that confirmed Jones had the potential for bigger things.
“When we started with Munster, Felix was going to be the skills coach and that’s what he worked on.
“And then when Anthony Foley passed away, he took over the attack.
“That’s why it wasn’t foreign for us to get him to fulfil that attack role for the ’Boks in 2019 and then he just continued stepping up as my defence coach when I became head coach.”
A successful head coach too, take a look at the Rugby World Cup in his hands ... something which leads to an question about the South African.
Just why has a double-winning RWC 2019 defence coach and RWC2023 head coach landed here, in Ireland?
There is a temptation to think this is the last great chess play of the departing David Nucifora and that may be so but the depreciating South African currency, the Rand, is surely a big player.
Certainly Leinster, along with Crusaders, are one of the most alluring clubs in the English-speaking
world.
While the succession stakes surrounding Andy Farrell’s stepping up to the 2025 Lions job and his first six-months of 2025 sabbatical could centre close to a club that had 16 internationals (another three officially ruled out by injury) in Ireland’s match-day squad for Scotland.
Thinking
The thinking goes something like this: Simon Easterby get to takes Farrell’s job and so needs a defence coach, which could mean Nienaber being approached.
Or the IRFU may link Easterby with Leo Cullen — a three-time Heineken cup winning captain/ Heineken winning coach/quadruple URC winning coach — with an eye on the latter being part of the Ireland coaching team at some point down the line.
At which point Leinster might