Eddie Jones: ‘Two areas where I noticed the Springboks were significantly different’
Springboks hooker Malcolm Marx and an inset of Japan head coach Eddie Jones.
Eddie Jones has hailed two significant areas of improvement from the Springboks since he last coached against the South Africans.
Rassie Erasmus’ charges romped to a 61-7 victory over the Brave Blossoms at Wembley Stadium over the weekend; Jones’ first game against the Boks since his Wallabies outfit was beaten 43-12 at Loftus Versfeld in 2023.
The experienced coach spoke glowingly about South Africa in the post-match, stating that the Boks’ aerial and kicking game was far superior to Japan’s, as his players weren’t used to those kinds of tactics, as they aren’t deployed in Japan Rugby League One.
Bulldozer Malcolm Marx
Jones revisited the game on the Rugby Unity podcast, where show host David Pembroke asked how South Africa has changed since he last coached against them.
“Well, there were two areas that I noticed that were significantly different, one was their speed and the height of their work around the breakdown,” the Japan boss began.
“They were really quick, aggressive, and low; there was one breakdown when Malcolm Marx cleaned out one of our players, who was over the ball and caused the turnover. He plays for Kubota [tractor and construction equipment manufacturer] in Japan, and he literally looked like a bulldozer.
“He must have been half a metre in his height, and he just hit him and cleaned him out and took him off the ball. So that was really impressive.”
After the match, Jones spoke highly of Springboks fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who scored two tries and added three conversions in the match, and echoed those sentiments on the podcast, but also reserved praise for the other backs.
“Then secondly, the speed of their backs and their speed in being able to take advantage of unstructured situations has definitely improved,” he added.
“Everyone’s talking about Sacha, and quite rightly, he’s a brilliantly talented player. He’s got good feet, he’s got a good fend, an eye for space. He wants to take people on, and he’s a big fella too – he’s not a small player. So he certainly looks like he’s going to be a really good talent coming through.
“There’s obviously a lot for him to negotiate in the next couple of years to see whether he can keep his head on and keep applied to his task, but there’s no reason to think he can’t.”
Springboks: Rassie Erasmus’ five biggest selection headaches for France grudge match
Maul and lineout power
South Africa were dominant for much of the match, but Jones was pleased that his charges were able to ‘hang in there’ at times, particularly in the scrums.
“Obviously, just the power of the scrum and maul,” he replied when asked what else impressed him. “That’s always been a vital part of the Springbok game, but they’re so consistent in those areas now.
“That’s the thing, sometimes in previous years, their lineouts have been a little bit wonky, but they’re so solid in the lineout and scrum, we couldn’t get any sort of advantage – I thought we hung in there really well.
“That was one area of our game that stood up to the pressure, so that’s a positive for us.”
Springboks: Nick Mallett highlights impact of Ox Nche’s departure for rest of end-of-year tour
In the build-up to the match, Jones said that he was eager to catch up with Erasmus on Saturday and get a bottle of wine from the Bok head coach.
However, he explained that unfortunately, there was no post-match function as both teams needed to travel the next day, with South Africa off to France and Japan heading to Ireland.
“No, we didn’t catch up [after the game], it was all a bit of a rush now with the arrangements, we were out on the road straight away,” he added.
“But I had a quick chat with him before the game; he was in good spirits, and that’s expected given the team he has.”
READ MORE: November Test Team of the Week: Springbok at ‘rampaging best’ while England star makes ‘mockery’
