Steyn excites Stonehouse
The chance of working with World Cup-winning Springbok Francois Steyn excites Jimmy Stonehouse, as the departing Pumas mentor heads to Tokyo to coach Steyn's Brave Lupus.
The Tokyo-based club also boasts the likes of Wallaby Cooper Vuna and 2011 World Cup-winning All Black Richard Kahui and hopes he could, in whatever way, shape or form, make a difference to his new club.
"I hope I can make a difference there. It's a new environment and great to learn from guys who know what they are doing and I would like to say that I will also make a difference. I will bring new things to them and I will learn things from them.
"To coach Frans Steyn, who won the World Cup with the Springboks, All Black Richard Kahui, who is also a World Cup winner, and Wallaby wing Cooper Vuna is unreal. You have to learn from the experience those guys and if you don't, then you won't go anywhere. So working with Frans [Steyn] is going to great and I'm really looking forward to it," he told rugby365.com.
Stonehouse will be no stranger to the club when he arrives, as he had previously spent 10 days there to gain some insight into the way the club is run and the approach of the players.
"I've been there and stayed there for about 10 days, to look at their training sessions, looking at what they, their game plan, their setpieces. I don't want to go in there and change what they are doing because they are doing well and are on a winning streak.
"You don't change a winning recipe. I know what their game plan is, they gave me some extra information to look at, I've watched them train and I already know what's going on there," he added.
Stonehouse highlighted the fact that he might have to adjust his approach somewhat, as the playing style of the Japanese league is the same across all teams whereas, in South Africa, the style of play differs from team to team all teams.
"The culture is different, that's just in personal style. I think the guys are well developed and they are physical but the nice part is there are a lot of foreigners playing there.
"It's a very quick game, which is how they like to play. In SA, each team has a different style depending on their pack of forwards but in Japan, it's pretty much the same style throughout the league. They play a quick, running style of rugby," he stated.
Although Stonehouse is a well travelled individual, this will only be his second time he will call a foreign country home, as he has previously coached in Russia for three years where he was in charge of their Under-19 National side as well as the Russian Sevens squad.
By Tauriq Ebrahim
@Tagels03
