Eddie Jones has hailed two significant areas of improvement from the Springboks since he last coached against the South Africans.<\/p>\n
Rassie Erasmus\u2019 charges romped to a 61-7 victory over the Brave Blossoms at Wembley Stadium over the weekend; Jones\u2019 first game against the Boks since his Wallabies outfit was beaten 43-12 at Loftus Versveld in 2023.<\/p>\n
The experienced coach spoke glowingly about South Africa in the post-match, stating that the Boks\u2019 aerial and kicking game was far superior to Japan\u2019s<\/a>, as his players weren\u2019t used to those kinds of tactics, as they aren\u2019t deployed in Japan Rugby League One.<\/p>\n Bulldozer Malcolm Marx<\/p>\n Jones<\/a> revisited the game on the Rugby Unity podcast<\/a>, where show host David Pembroke asked how South Africa<\/a> has changed since he last coached against them.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, there were two areas that I noticed that were significantly different, one was their speed and the height of their work around the breakdown,\u201d the Japan boss began.<\/p>\n \u201cThey 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.<\/p>\n \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n After the match, Jones spoke highly of Springboks fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThen secondly, the speed of their backs and their speed in being able to take advantage of unstructured situations has definitely improved,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone\u2019s talking about Sacha, and quite rightly, he\u2019s a brilliantly talented player. He\u2019s got good feet, he\u2019s got a good fend, an eye for space. He wants to take people on, and he\u2019s a big fella too \u2013 he\u2019s not a small player. So he certainly looks like he\u2019s going to be a really good talent coming through.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s 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\u2019s no reason to think he can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Springboks: Nick Mallett gives forthright verdict on accusations of arrogance against Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu<\/a><\/p>\n Springboks: Rassie Erasmus\u2019 five biggest selection headaches for France grudge match<\/a><\/p>\n Maul and lineout power<\/p>\n South Africa were dominant for much of the match, but Jones was pleased that his charges were able to \u2018hang in there\u2019 at times, particularly in the scrums.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, just the power of the scrum and maul,\u201d he replied when asked what else impressed him. \u201cThat\u2019s always been a vital part of the Springbok game, but they\u2019re so consistent in those areas now.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the thing, sometimes in previous years, their lineouts have been a little bit wonky, but they\u2019re so solid in the lineout and scrum, we couldn\u2019t get any sort of advantage \u2013 I thought we hung in there really well.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was one area of our game that stood up to the pressure, so that\u2019s a positive for us.\u201d<\/p>\n