LAYING DOWN AN EARLY MARKER
UNDERSTANDABLE though it may have been that the remarkable gracelessness of Matt O’Connor was the story of the aftermath to Munster’s win against Leicester, there were more valuable insights to be gleaned from the game.
One was the efficiency of the Munster attack and their dynamism in tearing the hapless Premiership team apart, and it was significant for two reasons beyond its importance in securing the win.
Firstly, it suggested that the province has learned lessons from the conclusion to last season, when after a tremendous winter and spring under Rassie Erasmus their limits were exposed in the semi-final of the European Cup and the final of the league.
The most obvious common feature of those two defeats, to Saracens and Scarlets respectively, was the constrained ambition of Munster in attack. Their gameplan was rudimentary, dependant on the boot of Tyler Bleyendaal for field position.
It was good enough for long stretches of a gruelling season, but it was no use against the leading teams.
In absorbing hard experiences last spring, Erasmus understood Munster needed to be more daring, and that brings up the second reason why Munster’s rout of Leicester was significant: the influence of Felix Jones.
The determination to make Munster a more sophisticated offensive team has survived the extended, complicated goodbye of Erasmus, and that is importantly down to Jones.
New head coach Johann van Graan is only in the door and reliant upon Jones and Jerry Flannery to a huge degree, and the impression that pair has made grows more pronounced. But Jones’ influence is especially striking given the 30-yearold is only in his second season as a coach.
It is little more than two years since he announced his retirement, succumbing to the second serious neck injury of his career in October 2015.
When Erasmus arrived last year, a conversation with Jones eventually grew into a coaching position. But as the departed South African explained at the start of the season, there was some reticence within the Munster organisation about entrusting too much responsibility in a man who, at the time, was still only 29.
‘Felix took a lot over anyway last year,’ recalled Erasmus at the launch of the Pro14 league in August. ‘When he came into the job, everyone was a bit nervous. When I said we make him the back-line coach, people said, “Let’s make him the fundamentals coach”.
I said, “Okay, we’ll make him the fundamentals coach” but by week seven he was coaching attack and back line, because I knew this guy could do it. But people were nervous in the beginning to give him that title.’
By the end of the season, however, players were hymning the work done by Jones.
‘When I was in the academy, Felix was the ultimate professional,’ said Darren Sweetnam. ‘As a player, he did everything so professionally and I think he carried that into his coaching as well.
‘He has such great knowledge of the game especially for back three players, he really helps us and has been a massive addition to the Munster coaching set-up.’
It was in Erasmus’ interest to talk up the squad he was leaving after months of stating his commitment to stay, but his conviction when addressing Jones’ abilities was unmistakable.
‘Some guys when they are playing think like coaches and I think Felix is one of those guys. Coaching-wise, I’ve got no doubt he’s got the ability and he’s got the head on his shoulders.
He’s got the work ethic, he’s got the accuracy, he’s got the empathy with the players and sympathy. He’s really relevant still in his coaching. He played last year (and he remembers) those things we’ve almost forgot, technical things.’
The former Munster chief is not the only prominent figure impressed by Jones. Joe Schmidt took him on the summer tour, Jones assisting on the Japanese leg after Ronan O’Gara and Girvan Dempsey had spent time with the Ireland camp.
It was farsighted of Schmidt to help developing coaches by exposing them to Test conditions, but O’Gara and Dempsey are at very different points on the cycle compared to Jones.
That Schmidt saw enough to bring the latter into the camp speaks to the start he has made to his coaching career, but Jones was impressing Schmidt and other leading coaches long before his retirement.
Declan Kidney was a big admirer of the former full back, giving him his debut and two subsequent caps in the warm-up matches for the 2011 World Cup. Jones looked certain to make the squad for New Zealand before he suffered a serious knee injury in the last of those matches, against France in Dublin.
He would win 10 more caps under Schmidt, and was close to making the cut for the last World Cup. That comment from Erasmus about those who think like coaches when playing the game would not be disputed by Kidney or Schmidt.
Less than 18 months into the second act of his rugby life, Jones is improving, to the extent that Munster possess a threat they did not last season.