'They've breathed life into the place' - youthful Munster crop can change trajectory with trophy win, says Felix Jones 

The Springboks coach knows a Stormers win is good news for South Africa but realises how desperate his former side are for a trophy.

BOKS CLEVER: Felix Jones has made a big impression as a coach since his premature retirement. Picture: INPHO/Billy Stickland

Diplomacy prohibits South Africa’s assistant coach Felix Jones from predicting a Munster victory against the odds in tomorrow’s BKT United Rugby Championship Grand Final against the Stormers but hearing the Irishman speak passionately about his former club would give any listener little doubt about who his heart will be pulling for at DHL Stadium.

Jones, 37, might well have been in the selection mix for Munster this weekend had injury not forced the full-back to retire on medical advice due to a neck injury in 2015. Certainly some of the players in Graham Rowntree’s travelling party here in Cape Town are of a similar vintage and it is Jones’s relationship with men such as captain Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray, Keith Earls and Stephen Archer that helps him appreciate just what a first trophy since 2011 would mean to the veterans.