Eddie Jones reveals where Springboks are ‘50% better than any other team’ as he tables law tweak to weaken Rassie Erasmus’ strength
Springboks Ethan Hooker, Damian de Allende and Morne van den Berg celebrate a try and an inset of Eddie Jones.
Japan head coach Eddie Jones has revealed where the Springboks are comfortably better than any other nation in the world and tabled a law tweak that can offset that advantage.
Rassie Erasmus’ men lost just twice in 2025, falling to the Wallabies at Ellis Park and the All Blacks at Eden Park, but defended their Rugby Championship title.
Jones’ Brave Blossoms were one of the teams that the back-to-back world champions breezed past this year, and the experienced coach believes that the changes in the kicking laws have significantly benefited South Africa.
In 2024, World Rugby outlawed the ‘escorts’, which effectively blocked and stalled players chasing high kicks in order to give the catching player more space and time.
The change in the law means that there is a fiercer contest for the ball in the air and allows the kicking team to regain possession more frequently than before.
It has had a significant impact on the game, particularly at the international level, and Jones believes that it encourages teams to kick more than they used to, as it is an effective way to move up the pitch with possession.
Springboks rule the air
Having reviewed the data from the November internationals, Jones revealed eye-watering statistics that the removal of the escorts has produced.
“So the latest data coming out is that the probability of catching a high ball now for the defending team in a one-on-one duel is less than 30%,” Jones said on the Rugby Unity podcast.
“So basically, the aerial contest is encouraging teams to kick high because you’ve got a high percentage of winning the ball back, which means that you can get up the field quickly by kicking.
“We’ve seen that in the November series, where South Africa absolutely dominated that area. I think they’re 50% better than any other team in the world, which is them maximising the way the game is being played now.
“But we’re actually encouraging teams to kick higher more often now. If that’s the game we want, that’s okay, but we are going to see more of that, not less of it, because we all play a copycat game, and whatever is working for successful teams, we will tend to copy to a large degree.”
Jones discussed the impact of the law tweak on the podcast in which World Rugby chair Brett Robinson appeared as a guest. The Japan coach tabled a way in which the law can remain intact but explained how the addition of a new rule would allow for a fairer contest.
He suggests adopting another rugby league law, denying attacking players the ability to slap the ball backwards and have to actually attempt to catch it.
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Domestic game is different
“I think there’s a question mark on how far we want that to go and maybe it’s only going to get more profitable for the team to kick high in the future than not unless we bring in the disruptor rule, which the rugby league brought in to take that away that unless you’re actively going for the ball in the air, you can’t just take the space and try to create a distraction for the catcher,” Jones said.
“So there are a couple of things to think about there. The other thing I think historically, if you think about rugby, like apart from certain periods, it’s always been a high-kicking game, but is that the game people want to see now? That’s the other part of the equation.
“If you think about it, most of the teams that were successful in World Rugby have been high-kicking games. They haven’t been a ball in play. They might have played off kicks, but they haven’t been a ball in play.
“Domestically, around the world, that’s been different; you’ve had teams who have been able to do that on a domestic level, but historically, international rugby has always been a kicking game.”
Robinson, who revealed that World Rugby is conducting a review of the TMO processes and roles before the Shape of the Game meeting next year, argued that while he understands Jones’ points, recently international matches have produced higher-scoring affairs.
“The only observation I’d make over the recent period is that despite our frustrations, we’ve actually had a lot of high-scoring rugby matches,” he said.
“So the scoring rates and the points that are being put regularly on the park at an international level, particularly the Autumn Series, are significant, rightly or wrongly, but there’s definitely more appetite.”
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The Springboks are ‘amazing’
Zoning in on the Springboks, he added: “I mean, the South Africans are amazing, aren’t they? So when we all were heading over there in the early 90s, very traditional game, never really had the attacking game or chose to have the attacking athletes that they have today.
“And to watch the impact of that indigenous population on the way they play the game, and the quality of the athlete, and having my son Tom at the under 20s level this year, he played in South Africa in March and also in Italy in June-July and that South African under 20s team has got a pipeline of amazing athletes coming through in all positions.
“Their game is so different, like they play to their traditional strengths, but they also have other elements of their game that they possibly didn’t have. Maybe that’s Tony Brown’s influence on Rassie.
“There are cultural linkages to the way we like to play as countries and you you’ve always said it’s so important to stay not too far away from some of those things or you got to leverage off those things culturally, but also I’ve seen this sort of shift in dimension from a country like South Africa to to be very, very different and they have a pipeline of athletes, not only in their men’s game, but their women’s game.
“That that’s the next frontier for them because the the success of the Springboks and the impact that Kolisi and others have on the indigenous women’s population of South Africa has meant that they’re producing all these incredible athletes.”
READ MORE: SA Rugby boss drops biggest hint as to who may replace Rassie Erasmus as Springboks head coach
