{"id":215669,"date":"2025-12-29T03:06:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T03:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/215669\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T03:06:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T03:06:11","slug":"felix-jones-and-jerry-flannery-to-make-temporary-switch-to-urc-side-bulls-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/215669\/","title":{"rendered":"Felix Jones and Jerry Flannery to make temporary switch to URC side Bulls \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/springboks\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/springboks\/\">Springboks<\/a> assistant coaches, including Irishmen Felix Jones and Jerry Flannery, will provide short-term support to the Bulls after a request from the club for assistance in specific technical areas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It comes after the departures of lineout coach Andries Bekker and backline coach Chris Rossouw following a poor run of form for the South African side, who are based in Pretoria.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Bulls have lost six of their last seven games in all competitions, their sole victory on that run coming away to Connacht in October. Director of rugby Jake White departed the club during the summer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Bulls reached the final of the URC in June, losing to Leinster in Dublin, and their side includes experienced Springboks such as Kurt-Lee Arendse, Handr\u00e9 Pollard and Willie le Roux.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Bulls sit 10th in the URC table, while they have lost their first two games in the Champions Cup. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The request was approved by South Africa Rugby and the Springbok management \u201cas part of the organisation\u2019s ongoing collaboration with its member unions\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Also included on the coaching ticket are SA Rugby mobi-unit coach Duane Vermeulen, and head of athletic performance Andy Edwards, who will support head coach Johan Ackermann.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe Bok coaches will engage with the Bulls on a limited basis, both remotely and in person where required, in line with SA Rugby\u2019s standard practice of sharing national coaching resources when requested,\u201d a statement from South Africa Rugby said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Former Ireland player Jones coached for three years at Munster before joining the Springboks in 2019, leaving to coach the England team in 2023 for a year before returning to the South African set-up under head coach Rassie Erasmus. Flannery, also a former Ireland player, coached Munster and Harlequins before joining the Springboks in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Erasmus said the support reflected the existing working relationship between the Springboks and the franchises.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe maintain regular engagement with our franchises, and when they request input in specific areas, we assist within the normal scope of our roles,\u201d said Erasmus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe understand the importance of a strong, collaborative relationship between our provincial teams and the Springboks, as it ultimately benefits South African rugby as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">South Africa Rugby chief executive Rian Oberholzer welcomed the collaboration: \u201cOur approach has always been to work collaboratively with our franchises where possible. We want to see all our teams perform to the best of their ability, and we will continue to support them when they reach out for assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe support is short-term in nature and does not constitute any formal appointment with the franchise,\u201d South Africa Rugby said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Springboks assistant coaches, including Irishmen Felix Jones and Jerry Flannery, will provide short-term support to the Bulls after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,1450,40,38,41,39,14881],"class_list":["post-215669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-springboks","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}