Jones fires shots at Springboks

The former Australian coach shifted the pressure onto the Springboks ahead of their match on Saturday. Jones believes Bok coach Heyneke Meyer's team selection hinted that the South Africans are nervous heading into the competition.

"You can see in the selection of the team that they are a bit nervous. They're playing Matfield and those guys in a game like this where you'd normally expect them to be rested - but in this case they're nervous,"  Jones said.

"That's natural after their previous results - you know the pressure the South African team is under to perform. When you lose games of Test rugby, which they have, they are under pressure so they've picked a number of their big names to play."

Jones said the Springboks lacklustre performances in the Rugby Championship were a big factor in their decision to play the likes of Victor Matfield, Schalk Burger and Jean de Villiers against Japan.

"South Africa have had a tough time of late. They've haven't done well in the Rugby Championship and it was the first time in their great history that they lost to Argentina. Who ever thought they'd lose to Argentina, so you never know what's around the corner," Jones said.

The former Springbok assistant coach also had a swipe at Bok tighthead prop Jannie du Plessis.

"We are playing again the Sharks front-row - Mtawarira and the Du Plessis brothers. We hope Jannie du Plessis just plays the game and doesn't ref it as well - he's very good at reffing the game but hopefully the French referee will ref the scrum and not Jannie," Jones quipped.

"I know he's got a doctor's degree but that doesn't mean he's a doctor in scrummaging."

Kickoff is at 17h45 on Saturday.

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(File Photo: Gallo Images)