After leaving Wales, the former fly-half has helped to turn around the fortunes of a team thousands of miles away
Former Wales captain Stephen Jones says he has been “blown away” by life in New Zealand as he prepares to try and make history with Moana Pasifika.
The ex-fly-half has been an assistant coach at the Super Rugby Pacific side since November 2023 and, working under former All Blacks captain Tana Umaga, has helped to turn around the club’s fortunes. While they finished bottom of the table for two successive seasons before Jones’ arrival, Moana Pasifika are now targeting a play-off place for the first time ever.
Having put last weekend’s bruising 85-7 defeat to the Chiefs behind them, Umaga’s side know that a win over the Hurricanes this weekend could well be enough to put them through to the play-offs after a season that has seen them spring more than a few surprises in the league.
Jones – who previously served as Wales’ attack coach under Wayne Pivac but was deemed surplus to requirements when Warren Gatland returned to the role at the end of 2022 – has been right at the heart of the team’s success over the course of the campaign.
However, while he has been able to pass on his expertise from a decorated career that saw him win 104 Wales caps and play six times for the British & Irish Lions, the 47-year-old admits that he is continuing to learn new things by immersing himself in the southern hemisphere way of playing and coaching.
“Here there is an ability to get the ball to space a lot quicker, and easier,” he told New Zealand Rugby. “For me, understanding how we build an attacking structure led from Tana and how we give the boys a platform to play without restricting their amazing ability to beat defenders and get the ball to space, is the lesson for me.
“We’ve got a wonderful playing group, but the coaching environment where you can throw an idea or a concept out there and discuss and evolve it to grow [is also good],” he added. “It’s a healthy environment to challenge ourselves. That’s the part I love about this group.
“If I look at our coaching group and how we function and discuss things, there’s an open willingness to share ideas. The forwards coach Tom Coventry might see an option for a back peel or an ability to get in behind them, and its great how we can evolve that.
“Tana, at the helm, might say, ‘Can we go this way?’ and Seilala Mapusua has been amazing and might see a different picture. Between us all we can discuss that and put it to the playing group.
“This season, just from coaching, there have been so many games that have gone down to the last five minutes. It’s just so competitive and the standards have been very, very good.”
As for his experiences away from the field, Jones admits to being taken aback by the beauty of the culture that he is now surrounded by – with the Moana Pasifika team made up players from Pacific Island nations as well as New Zealand or Australian-born players of Pasifika heritage.
“When you’re involved in the system, you appreciate fully how the system works,” he said. “I’m blown away how beautiful the Pacific culture is.
“From the rugby playing aspect, we have a responsibility to the islands to develop the youngsters and hopefully give them a good rugby education where they can flourish. I’m very proud of this pathway for the youngsters to be able to play for Samoa or Tonga.”
Moana Pasifika’s impressive season has seen them improve their results against Super Rugby Pacific’s Australian sides, but Jones admits they have been tough battles and ones that may spell danger for Andy Farrell’s Lions squad this summer.
While the Welshman said that, after the Wallabies’ horror show at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, he expected the Lions to perform well on their tour Down Under, signs of improvement from the hosts have made the upcoming series “tough to call”.
“The games we’ve had against the Aussie sides have been very competitive, and they’ve been tough games,” the attack coach said.
“[Australia] will be coming with confidence from [their recent results] and, looking at how the players are performing week in and week out in Super Rugby, it is going to make for an interesting Test series, which is what we want. It’s tough to call, and that’s the exciting part about it.”
