Morne du Plessis Quits : Irish Rugby

Former Springbok captain Morne du Plessishas quit as South African Rugby board director, South African Rugby Football Union (SARFU). Du Plessis, a widely-respected official who was manager of theteam that won the 1995 World Cup, resigned amid attempts to revamp SouthAfrica's entire rugby structure.

A number of top officials have quit the game following adisastrous performance in last year's World Cup. State broadcaster SABC reported that sweeping changes in had beenapproved at a recent board meeting, but did not give any details.

SARFU said on their website: "Mr du Plessis has indicated ina letter to the chairman of the board, Dr Theunie Lategan, that he could notguarantee what his level of contribution would be in future following the

suggested changes at the bosberaad (meeting) and therefore felt it appropriatefor him to stand down."

Du Plessis' departure follows a series of resignations after theSpringboks were ousted from the World Cup in a humiliating quarter-final matchwhen they lost 29-9 against New Zealand. Skipper Corne Krige, coach Rudolf Straeuli, SA Rugby managingdirector Rian Oberholzer and SARFU president Silas Nkanunu have since quit.

SA Rugby was hit by another scandal in January when financialauditors found that one million rand (143,000 dollars) had been stolen fromits coffers. Two staff members were subsequently been suspended.

Felix Jones, who is the visiting coach in Ireland camp this week, spoke to Irish Rugby TV about how 'interesting' and 'valuable' his time in Tokyo has been, and also what the transition from player to coach is like. He retired in October 2015 and is now Munster's back-line and attack coach.

Speaking ahead of Saturday's second Test against Japan, Ireland tour captain Rhys Ruddock said: "We've been happy with the results so far, and there's been bits of the performances we've been really happy with and some bits that we're looking to improve on. Tomorrow marks the last opportunity to go out and do that, so we're all really excited about getting out there now."

Ulster's Luke Marshall, who will return to the Irish midfield in Tokyo on Saturday, is expecting Japan to 'come back pretty hard' following their 50-22 defeat in Shizuoka last weekend.