Bok boss Rassie Erasmus clarifies Felix Jones' role in SA Rugby

There might be coaches aplenty in Springbok management, but SA Rugby jumped at the chance to have the experienced Jones back in the mix. The Irishman has been in the South African camp for their last two successful Rugby World Cup campaigns. He then signed with Steve Borthwick's England. 

Former All Black Tony Brown was appointed attacking coach during Jones' brief absence in England and Brown is set to remain in that capacity.

Jones would have been part of the three-day season planning block that Bok management went through this past weekend. Speaking to the press, Erasmus revealed that Jones will be consulting with all the coaches in management, including the Women's and Junior setups.

"He will not be used just as an attacking coach," he said.

"There are a few areas [of our game] we feel we can improve on. We have various coaches overseeing different departments, and Felix will be responsible for bringing all those elements together.

"He'll be responsible for organising one-on-one sessions with the players. He'll do extras with players before training sessions. Usually, it's extras after training, but the players can decide which session they prefer. We want to use all our time on the [training] pitch to our full advantage.

"Felix Jones will also be involved with Jaco [Peyper] to work with World Rugby. He did it with England as with South Africa before his departure.

"He will also analyze the opposition, which will free up a lot of time for Tony [Brown] to focus on the players' skills.

"I don't want to call it a [job] title, but he'll be more of a coaching coordinator working with the other coaches. I don't want people to go out and say that's his title.

"He'll be the link between players and coaches to get a player's roadmap a bit better so they know exactly what to do.

"Apart from the team and conditioning sessions, for instance, say a player's passing skills isn't up to scratch - he'll put him in that category so Tony can improve his skill. He's excellent at analysis, so we'll use him alongside our two other analysts."

The Springboks will attend their first alignment camp on 2025 in Cape Town this week. 

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