‘Fun-loving Eddie Jones helped us Springboks win 2007 World Cup’
⮞bryan Habana reveals the key role England coach played in triumph in Paris, which also revived the Australian’s career
‘Ialways tell people that we got the fun-loving Eddie Jones,” Bryan Habana says, with a chuckle. “He didn’t have to worry about the media or addressing press conferences but was just able to pass on his incredible rugby knowledge and experience that enabled a group of South African players to look at themselves in a different light.”
It seems that time has not diminished Habana’s affection for the England head coach for the impact he had in inspiring the Springboks to their 2007 World Cup triumph after being brought in just before the tournament in France as the squad’s technical director.
It proved to be a sliding-doors moment for both parties. Jones, who had been sacked by Australia in 2005, had endured a torrid season at the Queensland Reds, finishing bottom of the Super 14 with his final game in charge a humiliating 92-2 defeat by the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld, when the phone call came from Jake White.
The Springboks head coach was aware of Jones’s perspective and attention to detail and wanted a fresh pair of eyes on his squad’s final preparations for the tournament in France. After only one session, which Jones rated as a “four out of 10”, White was convinced that Jones’s candidness and vision could offer a point of difference.
He was appointed as technical director on the spot and, just four months after the humiliation in Pretoria, Jones was in Paris, working with some of those Bulls players, including Habana, Fourie du Preez, Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha, and helping him rebuild his coaching credentials.
“We were extremely fortunate that Eddie was able to seamlessly give us as much information that technically made us change the way we were thinking and doing things,” said Habana, who won 124 caps and scored 67 tries for the Springboks. “He gave us great nuggets of information and I know I personally really benefited from it.
“Eddie Jones is now responsible for a lot of things but back then he was able to come in under the radar and do the things that he loves, which is talk rugby, explain rugby and come up with ways to make players individually better and collectively better as a whole. He was able to tell us how other teams viewed us and, for me, it was about getting me into positions when opposition defences didn’t see me and that incorporated how I communicated with Fourie and the back three, but also working around Butch James and doing the things that George Gregan and Stephen Larkham had been doing so well for Australia.”
It is that rugby intellect that Habana feels is now bringing a level of uncertainty about how England will play against South Africa at Twickenham today as Jones seeks to take his side in a new direction, investing in the creative genius of Marcus Smith at fly-half and starting the Harlequins centre Joe Marchant on the right wing.
The diminutive Smith is certain to be targeted by the Springboks’ array of formidable ball carriers but Habana expects the 22 year-old to be up to the challenge.
“Cheslin Kolbe has shown that size doesn’t matter and Marcus Smith will take something from that,” Habana said. “The Springboks will need to closely watch the attacking threat that Marcus poses. They will also know that defensively he is not a liability. He has shown that he can make his tackles when he needs to.
“Having seen what happened at the Aviva last weekend [Ireland’s victory over New Zealand], I don’t think either side will go into this game overconfident. They have been preparing to finish this international season on a high and I think supporters are going to be treated to a brilliant spectacle.”
Whatever the result, Jones will be one who Habana will seek out today. It says much about the relationship between the two that Habana ended up giving Jones his Springboks blazer at the end of the World Cupwinning campaign in 2007.
As Jones was not an official member of South Africa’s World Cup squad, he was not registered to receive one. “It didn’t bother Eddie in the slightest, he just got on with the job,” Habana said. “But when we won the World Cup, it was a great honour for me to give him a memento. He was extremely appreciative but I’d say it’s something small, relative to the amount he gave us in terms of helping us win a Rugby World Cup.”