Lions defence coach JP Ferreira on Super Rugby and the Springboks

Much of the praise for the way in which the Lions played rugby in 2016 was deservedly directed at coach Johan Ackermann and his assistant Swys de Bruin. They, in turn, would point out that they had a solid team around them, and they weren’t just talking about the players. They were talking about people like JP Ferreira. Ferreira is the Lions defence coach and he’s one of the great survivors at the Golden Lions Rugby Union. He joined the union in 2007 and has seen coaches come and go, including Eugene Eloff, Jake White, Dick Muir and John Mitchell. He’s always held on to his job, because he is so good at it. His skills as a defence coach were recognised by SA Rugby when they drafted him to help Springbok coach Allister Coetzee on the end-of-year tour last year. He’s back working with the Lions, preparing the players for a tough Super Rugby season. I chatted to JP Ferreira on Hot919. – David O’Sullivan

How is the squad looking at the moment as you prepare for your warm-up games in Super Rugby.

It’s been a great pre-season. The boys have been working hard and you know obviously it’s a different challenge for the senior guys that have gone to Japan. But I must say it creates a feeling of depth in the squad that we had no choice but to develop the young players and you almost take stock of what you have in the Union. I must say that the youngsters really worked hard in pre-season and are still working hard leading up to the final squad announcement that will probably take place at the end of January.

Have the players such as Warren Whiteley, Lionel Mapoe, Elton Jantjies, Jaco Kriel arrived back from Japan yet?

They have arrived back and we have seen them around the Union but obviously with their contracts in place they can only start training as from Monday.

JP, you’ve got a team going off to Harare, they’re going to be playing the Bulls and then you’ve got a game against the Stormers. Tell me about the preparations for the Bulls game in Harare.

Super RugbyThe Japan guys and the senior guys that went to Japan that have just arrived back, they won’t be available for the Harare game, so we’re going to send some youngsters that have been included in the Super Rugby squad to that game. On the 11th February we’ve got the Stormers in Cape Town and in all likelihood we will be able to include the senior guys there and give them some game time and see, especially the Japan guys, where they are at.

What is most important for you as you play these warm-up games. Is victory the number one goal, or is it a chance for you to look at depth, assess fitness and assess skills levels?

Yes, that’s exactly what it is. You know it’s a long competition and we really want to see where we are at in these games and see obviously in this Harare game where the youngsters are at, and then where the senior guys are at in the Stormers game. The Stormers game will be a big test because I think about 26 guys from each side will be involved in that game. So that’s clearly what we want to see – where the fitness levels are at, where the skills levels are at, where the defence is at and try and sort those small things out before we go into our first pool game on the 25th against the Cheetahs.

Are you satisfied with the fitness levels of the players at this stage?

Yes we are, we are satisfied with the guys who have been here and have been involved in the squad since the beginning of pre-season. On Monday we’ll check the fitness levels of the guys who have been in Japan. We’ve got about six guys that were in Japan and they’re senior guys. So it’s going to be interesting to see how fresh they are and where they are at. You know they have just come out of the Japan season and almost haven’t had a break, so it’s going to be really interesting to see where they are at.

I suppose one good thing was that none of them were playing in semi-finals or finals of their competitions. When I spoke to Warren Whiteley at the end of last year he was saying that he doesn’t play a full game. So it would seem that the players coming back are not overcooked.

Yes, for sure, they are not over-cooked. The biggest thing David is that they haven’t stopped and you know sometimes it’s good to get your head away from rugby. If they’d been with us after Currie Cup they would have had a good four week break like we’ve had and they would have got their mind away from the game and come back fresh. So I think it’s a bit more of a mental state of where the players are than a physical state.

Warren Whiteley

JP, you went along as one of Allister Coetzee’s assistants on the end of year tour to Europe. How did that help you as a coach? Did it have any impact on you? Did you learn new things?

Yes, it had a massive impact on the way I have been coaching. It has given me new ideas and especially going into Europe and seeing and analysing England, Italy and Wales and the way they do things in wet weather and stuff like that. As we know the weather changes all the time and maybe there are one or two small things that I can add to what I have learned from my time with the Springboks. It’s almost like a renewed energy, to confirm that what I am doing works and it works on the international stage as well as on a Super Rugby stage.  So that’s boosted my confidence from a coaching point of view that the things I’ve been doing and implementing at Super Rugby also work at international level. So yes, it was really good for me and it was an awesome experience.

The Lions are roaring in the concrete jungleI think most fans who don’t understand rugby as intricately as you do are puzzled as to how the Lions are able to perform at such a high level in Super Rugby yet the Springboks aren’t. Are there simple answers to that or is a complex issue?

I don’t think it’s a complex issue, I think the biggest thing that has come out of the whole of last year with the Springboks and that has been talked about at the Indaba is the fitness of the players and the way that the players at the different unions get conditioned. That was the key focus at the end of last year with the conditioning Indaba and trying to set standards where players must be at. But you know, I think once that gets put into place and everyone has that buy-in, including all the conditioning coaches and the head coaches of the respective unions, I think it will influence a lot of things on an international level. I think that’s what we have seen with New Zealand. There are a couple of things that all the New Zealand unions buy into which obviously results in a greater end product for the All Blacks. And I don’t think that there is a big difference between a player who comes from the Blues and a player who comes from the Hurricanes or the Crusaders or Chiefs for that matter, fitness-wise. Everyone is on the same fitness plateau. So I think once the conditioning thing is sorted out at the unions and they have all had that buy-in, I think it will make a difference with the Springboks.

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