Matt Proudfoot Compares Rassie With Eddie

After the somewhat unexpected eventuality that the Webb Ellis trophy would be lifted, not by Owen Farrell, but by Siya Kolisi, England head coach Eddie Jones was quick to evolve his thoughts and feelings out of the realm of disappointment and into the sphere of pragmatism.

The bottles of champagne in South Africa had barely emptied after the Springboks’ crushing of the red roses when forwards coach Matt Proudfoot’s phone rang and, shortly thereafter, he found himself on a London-bound plane to meet with Jones.

One conversation was all it took for Jones to secure Proudfoot’s services and the latter was suddenly in charge of a pack which was mutilated by his former charges mere weeks earlier.

"England is probably the best team in world rugby to coach," said Proudfoot.

"Having coached against them you get to respect their identity so to get the opportunity to be part of that is a huge honour and privilege.”

Now, roughly five months into the job, Proudfoot has opened up about the different styles in the Springbok and English camps.

"Eddie has tried to pull a whole lot of different perspectives into the English model and tried to really make it the best," Proudfoot expressed during a teleconference.

"That has required me to grow, requires the players to grow, staff members to grow and to be outside your comfort zone and that has been a very big difference. His preparation is exceptional. How holistically he prepares a team. He wants us to continually improve the way we do things so, once we've trained, he'll ask us how we could improve that session."

Proudfoot was, of course, taking nothing away from ex-Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus, who managed to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat with his side’s World Cup triumph. Erasmus, himself an ex-Springbok flanker, took over the team 18 months before the tournament began after his predecessor was sacked following a woeful run of results that, in the minds of most, had put South Africa well and truly out of contention.

However, Proudfoot observes, the focus in Erasmus’ set-up was geared more towards tradition and problem-solving than the generation of new ideas and concepts.

"In the South African environment, a statement was 'execution above innovation'. Here it's 'execution through innovation’.

"Eddie wants to build the best rugby environment. He pushes every part of the department to be the best they can be, whereas maybe the Springbok environment was about really preserving the Springbok identity," Proudfoot said.