Jones Ridicules De Villiers Game Plan

Former Springbok assistant coach and Wallaby head coach Eddie Jones has ridiculed Peter De Villiers’ so-called ‘game plan’.

“The Springboks will get worse if they continue in this way. Mate, no-one in world rugby is playing the way their coach is talking about, not successfully anyway. Everyone has discipline, policies and a procedure in their game. The way he is talking is nonsense. You can’t just play an expansive, wide game,” said Jones in The Independent.

“This is still a very good squad of players. Most are even at their peak or approaching it. So there is plenty of talent but what they need is the organisation and discipline. Therefore, Peter will need to modify his approach. He has got two good assistants so they should sit down and look at the reasons they are doing so poorly. If they do that, they will come up with a modified approach.

“If De Villiers keeps on going down this track he will be unsuccessful. He has got to learn if he wants to coach at international level you have to have some sort of discipline involved. Then get the players to play for that. The hard thing for Peter is that he has never coached professionally and this is one of the most difficult teams to coach.

“But you don’t need to go to a harum-scarum type of game. New Zealand showed that, they almost played traditional rugby in Auckland. And the Crusaders play exactly the same way. They play chiefly down in the opposition half, they don’t run much from their own 22. They have a real go in opposition territory. It is not a complicated approach.

“But South Africa have gone to the other extreme, they’re attacking off everything. And they’re going lateral, not through defences. You have to go through sides like Australia and New Zealand first. South Africa’s problem is if you have played one game then try to go to the other extreme, that’s a danger. Knowing the South African players, I would say they would prefer much more discipline. There’s no structure in their game at present and they have lost all their discipline.

“They could turn it around, even in 7 days. It will be tough but they are a resilient bunch of players, some of the toughest footballers I have ever been involved with. But he has to change his philosophy because it doesn’t fit these players. It’s not credible – you have got to give players a framework to work under.

“Peter’s big test now is to learn. If he learns, he can turn it around. But if he continues to be stubborn, he won’t last long because his tactics won’t work.”