Jones wants to 'light up Newlands'

Jone made his debut in front of the Cape media at a press confernece at Newlands and pledged to produce a crowd-pleasing brand of rugby.

"We want to come up with a really distinctive Stormers brand of rugby, we want to light up Newlands.

"The aim is always to win a trophy, but what we want to do is play a type of rugby that people there at the end they just can't wait to get their ticket for the next week," he said.

He explained that this does not mean they will compromise on any of their traditional strengths, but rather rekindle their old identity of playing attacking rugby.

"If you go back and look at the history of Western Province rugby, it has been about attacking rugby.

"We want to have the traditional South African base, which is strong set-piece, defence and tough uncompromising rugby, but then we want to add that Western Province flavour.

"We don't want the Stormers playing like the Brumbies or Japan, we want the Stormers playing like the Stormers, so we want to make sure we keep our base in South African rugby and add some Western Province flavour to it.

"If I have got any sort of history as a coach it has been producing attacking rugby teams, attack is harder to do because it takes longer to produce, but that is where we want to go.

"We want to be a side that comes to Newlands and the people get excited about the sort of rugby that we play, that is going to take time but that is the direction we want to go," he said.

Jones has a young squad at his disposal, which may make the task of moulding a new style somewhat easier, starting with a pre-season which will involve skills training throughout rather than separating it from conditioning.

"It is an exciting time for the Stormers because we have got a bunch of young guys that can form a new leadership group.

"We are going to be doing a different sort of pre-season to the way it has traditional been done, we are going to be doing strength and conditioning and skills all in one to try and develop the game we want to play," he explained.

Jones dismissed speculation linking him to the England job, explaining that the opportunity to coach the Stormers is a unique challenge.

"The opportunity to coach the Stormers given that they have the biggest fan base in Super Rugby, a diverse fan base and fans that are excited to see the team play and a side that has never won the trophy," he said.

By Michael de Vries