Jones wants to light up Super Stormers

Seasoned Australian coach Eddie Jones wants to bring back the flair of old to the Stormers and light up Newlands when he makes his return to Super Rugby in 2016.

The Cape Town-based side have been criticised by many fans in recent years for adopting a dour approach under former coach Allister Coetzee.

Jones, a major hit with Japan at the recent World Cup in England, wants to revert to a style of play for which the Western Province side was previously renowned in order to try to lead them to a first Super Rugby title.

“When you look at the history of Western Province, the team has been about playing attacking rugby,” he told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

“What we will be looking to do is develop an attacking style with a traditional South African base which means forward domination and strong set-phase play which is pretty much what everyone chases after.

“We want to play good rugby and light up Newlands. If we do that we will get results and have a good year,” said Jones.

“How long it takes to win Super Rugby which is obviously our ultimate goal … I don’t know.”

Jones steered Japan to three victories in the 2015 World Cup pool phase including a stunning 34-32 win over the Springboks.

With interest in Japan at record levels, the temptation could have been to stay with the 2019 World Cup hosts but Jones said the opportunity to return to day-to-day coaching prompted his decision to move to Cape Town.

“Japan offered me the job to go forward and once I decided I didn’t want to be director of rugby for their Super Rugby team, for various reasons, to stay in Japan and coach five games a year, I thought, ‘I’m 55, I want to maximise my coaching time’,” he said.

“I’ve got maybe another 10 years … and to work in South Africa was a big drawcard. Not many foreign coaches have come here.”

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