How Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus inspired England’s newest assistant coach

England assistant coach Felix Jones opened up on the coaches that have had an influence on his career thus far with Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus unsurprisingly on the list.

Jones has just begun his stint as assistant coach of England after having been with the Springboks since 2018, where the former Munster star helped the side win back-to-back Rugby World Cups.

Star-powered inspiration

Ahead of the new challenge, Jones admits he was fortunate to be around some great rugby minds and mentioned Erasmus alongside the great Anthony Foley and new Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt.

“I was very lucky when I first went into coaching. I had a number of guys that were very influential for me, guys like Rassie to begin with, Anthony Foley, and Joe Schmidt. the coaching network is actually quite open to talking about it,” Jones told the Telegraph.

“So you end up having quite a wealth of people that can just help you along the way. Everyone shapes you a little bit differently and you take little bits from them all.

“Everyone there [in South Africa] is very open and understands what professional rugby is. There is nothing to talk about, really. Most teams are looking at other teams and seeing what certain teams do well. Not all of it is transferable. New Zealand can only play like New Zealand. South Africa can only play like South Africa. Ireland can only play like Ireland.

“But there are certain smaller things you can potentially tweak or amend to suit the way you want to play.”

Innovation

Erasmus has become renowned for never shying away from innovation, and this showed again at the World Cup last year as the Springboks coaching staff used lights to communicate from the coaching box to players on the field.

Jones believes the context was lost in that situation and admits every team is working hard to find an edge in some way.

“That type of thing was trying to find different ways of doing things that could optimise communication. The context of it is probably lost on most people except for the people who are directly involved and understand it.

“Most coaching teams are trying, maybe not like that, to find ways of gaining a tactical advantage or doing something in their environment that can improve learning or engaging people with other expertise to do it better. That was a different way of doing it. I don’t think you will be seeing it at Twickenham.”

READ MORE: Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus hospitalised after ‘freak accident’