Former Ireland international and Dragons head coach Bernard Jackman believes that Munster have pulled off a major coup in adding JP Ferreira to their coaching team.
The Irish province today confirmed that Ferreira would be joining them from Super Rugby side Golden Lions Rugby as their new defensive coach.
Ferreira replaces Jacques Nienaber at Thomond Park and is expected to link up with the rest of the Munster coaching staff next week.
Speaking on 2fm’s Game On, Jackman revealed that had some inside information on how Ferreira works and that he believes Munster have signed a defence coach that any club in Europe would be happy to have.
"I actually signed a player from the Lions, via the Kings and I was in the car with him today," Jackman revealed. "He couldn’t believe that Munster were able to get him [Ferreira] out of the Lions, he felt that he would have stayed there and he was very much on track to potentially graduate towards the Springboks.
"He’s really highly thought of, apparently a very good technical coach and quite young, but builds a quick rapport with players.
"I think it’s important for Munster, they’ve lost Rassie [Erasmus] who did a huge amount of recruiting and man-management and planning and they also lost Nienaber, so it was important for them to bring in a defence coach to continue on the good work that Nienaber put in place.
"This guy is a real good operator and any of the top clubs in Europe would be happy to be able to bring this guy in."
At just 34 years of age, Ferreira lowers the age profile of an already young coaching staff at Munster and Jackman believes that this is a positive sign that Munster are making long-term plans.
Head coach Johann van Graan, forwards coach Jerry Flannery and backline and attack coach Felix Jones are all under the age of 40 and Jackman views this as a major positive for the province.
"They are young but I think Felix and Jerry have picked up a great deal of experience already. One of the great things that Rassie Erasmus did was to give them responsibility and he mentored them really well.
"By all accounts they’re both technically and tactically very good coaches.
"Ferreira is only 34 but that Lions teams have grown up over the last five years together and Van Graan has been schooled by Heinke van der Merwe at the Bulls and obviously around really good coaching in the Springboks.
"They’re young but they’ve got a huge amount of experience. I think they’ll form a bond pretty quickly and they could be together for a really long time hopefully."
