'Shell-shocked': Eddie Jones' big Bok warning to the rest of the world

SPOTLIGHT: Eddie Jones has shared his thoughts on some of the changes he has witnessed in South Africa’s game.

His Japan team went down 7-61 to the world champions last weekend, and he said South Africa’s performance in London was “a clear reminder of why they sit at the top of world rugby”.

“We were a bit shell-shocked,” Jones said on the Rugby Unity podcast. “There were players who didn’t handle the intensity of the occasion and went into their shell.

“That’s my fault – I didn’t give them the preparation to be confident in that environment.

“But you learn quickly in games like that. You see the gap between where you are and where you need to be, and you can use that to accelerate improvement.”

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Rugby Unity’s host, David Pembroke, also wanted Jones to explain how South Africa has changed since he last coached against them.

“Well, there are two areas that were significantly different. One was their speed and height of their work around the breakdown.

“They were really quick and really aggressive and really low. There was one where Malcolm Marx cleaned out one of our players who was over the ball and caused a turnover.

“He literally looked like a bulldozer. He must’ve been less than 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.”

Jones believes South Africa’s backline has evolved with someone like Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu in the No.10 jersey.

“Secondly, the speed of their backs and the speed of their backs of being able to take advantage of unstructured situations has definitely improved.

“Everyone’s talking about Sacha and quite rightly. He’s a brilliantly talented player.

“He’s got good feet, he’s got a good fend, he’s got an eye for space, and he wants to take people on. And he’s a big fellow too.

“He is not a small player, and he certainly looks like he’s going to be a really good talent coming through.

“There’s 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’s no reason to think he can’t.”

The Springboks will face France in Paris on Saturday, while Japan will be in Dublin for a tough outing against Ireland.