Eddie’s Bloem visit is all about the field, not Bok secrets
But Cheetahs mentor Rory Duncan admits it would've been 'great' to have a chat with the highly-rated England coach.
Eddie Jones, England’s coach, was at Ellis Park earlier this week. He’s on a fact-finding mission of all the venues for their tour later this year. Photo: Lions/Facebook.
Eddie Jones, the England coach and the mastermind behind the Springboks’ infamous loss to Japan in the 2015 World Cup, visited the Cheetahs in the second stop of a “reconnaissance mission” on Wednesday.
The 57-year-old Australian is familiarising himself with all three venues – Ellis Park, Free State Stadium and Newlands – of June’s Test series between the Springboks and England.
However, local rugby fans need not be worried about the unions divulging any secrets to him.
In fact, it’s already been confirmed that Jones only wants to get a feel for the respective stadiums’ facilities.
“I don’t know if anything has been set up,” said Rory Duncan, the Cheetahs coach.
“I’m certainly not aware of any talks, just him getting a tour of the stadium.”
But Duncan, unlike some counterparts, is already in the thick of things again as his team has already resumed their Pro14 campaign.
And as he tries to keep the Cheetahs’ hunt for a playoff spot alive, the former lock wouldn’t mind a few insights from Jones.
“It would be great. He’s one of the best coaches in the world,” said Duncan.
“If we could’ve had a chat with him it would be absolutely fantastic but I’m not sure if there’ll be an opportunity for it.”
Talking of learning opportunities, the Cheetahs certainly aren’t unaware of the fact that were taught another lesson in European conditions last weekend against Italian side Treviso.
And in this instance, it amounted to handling referees from the Northern Hemisphere.
The Cheetahs were yellow-carded twice in less than a minute by Irish arbiter Frank Murphy.
“I think our referees and those in Europe are very much on the same wavelength,” said hooker Torsten van Jaarsveld, who’ll captain the side Saturday against the Southern Kings in the absence of regular skipper Francois Venter.
“Sometimes a referee misses one or two things, makes a harsh call somewhere. But it’s no excuse. We were on a warning before the first card, so that was justified. Maybe the second one was harsh but in the end, we were in control and lost our grip.”
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