Felix Jones tackles question of Springboks' struggles against Ireland

Asked this week why the Springboks have struggled to get the upper hand over Ireland in recent meetings, South Africa defence coach Felix Jones has responded with great admiration for his homeland’s evolution into a rugby powerhouse.

The Boks have emerged victorious in just one of the last five encounters with Ireland, leaving a blemish on an otherwise largely dominant record for the back-to-back world champions. The most famous of the recent defeats, of course, came in the pool stages of the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

For the Dublin-born Jones, the results are a credit to more than a decade of efforts by management, coaches, and players in the Irish system.

The question was posed on the eve of what is sure to be another epic Dublin encounter between two of the top-four-ranked nations in rugby.

“I think they’ve been around one, two, or three in the world for such a long period now,” Jones reflected. “That probably goes back to the structures that Ireland have created over the last number of decades; their school system, their club system, their academies, how it’s all feeding into the national team quite successfully. Some of it from a very high level.

“They really nurtured and capitalised, and worked hard at making sure their feeder system is in a good place.”

The former Munster fullback went on to address the current crop of talent and what makes them such a challenge.

“With this team specifically, first of all, I think they’re extremely well coached and have been for a long time, from the foundations that were laid by Declan Kidney and Les Kiss all the way through to Joe (Schmidt) and Andy (Farrell)  and the guys that are in there at the moment, Paul O’Connell, Andrew Goodman.

“There are just so many quality coaches that have come through the Irish system. And then, of course, you have the players who really accelerated that success over the last number of years through, again, it’s pretty simple to say it, but very difficult to do, unbelievably hard work.

“And that’s seen in their style of play, the way it’s developed over the years, their skill sets have increased, the depth, the players that are coming through being at a professional level at a very early age. So yeah, I think there are many reasons for it, and it comes back to the hard work and a lot of the foundations that were laid by people that are no longer here or have left the organisations, but their legacy is staying on.”