Former Ireland international and Munster coach Felix Jones has joined South Africa’s Rugby World Cup coaching ticket.
The former full-back reunites with Rassie Erasmus with the pair having worked together with Munster while the South African was Director of Rugby.
Jones surprisingly departed Munster last May alongside Jerry Flannery.
The 32-year-old will fill the role left by Swys de Bruin, who withdrew from the South Africa set-up “for medical reasons”.
South Africa say Jones will join the Springboks at the Rugby World Cup on “a short-term consultancy”.
Director of Coaching Erasmus stated today: “I spoke to the players after Swys decided to step down and the consensus was that we didn’t want a new attack coach.
The feeling was that bringing in someone in that role now with new ideas now would be destabilising at this last stage of the preparations.
But they were interested in having more analysis of defensive patterns and structures to assist in breaking down the opposition.
Erasmus told sarugby.co.za that with most coaches already tied down to teams, he was ” fortunate” to get Jones on board.
“Felix will bring a fresh eye to our analysis and planning and I am looking forward to his input,” Erasmus added.
“He is a real student of the game and I believe the players will benefit from his contribution.”
Jones helped Munster to a Magners League (now the Pro14) title in 2011 and made 13 appearances for Ireland throughout his career.
He spent three years on the coaching ticket at Munster from 2016 to 2019.
He also served as an assistant coach to Joe Schmidt’s Ireland during their 2017 summer tour of Japan.