“He’s probably the best coach I’ve ever come across”
If there was a moment that summed up the South African World Cup success, it came in a four minute period late in the first half. England set up a rolling maul in the 30th minute, and bashed the South African line for phase after phase until eventually accepting a penalty in the 34th minute to draw level. The Boks’ line went unbreached. They went on to lift the trophy.
It’s handy when you have a 16th man in play.
Defence coach Jacques Nienaber could be spotted behind the South African defence, roaring instructions as their titanic effort kept the English attack at bay.
Speaking on The JOEpan Rugby Show this week, former Munster coach Jerry Flannery revealed a little bit more about Nienaber’s augmented role within the Springboks and Munster coaching tickets;
“He doesn’t have a massive profile in world rugby. But he’s, Jacques Nienaber, he’s the defence coach with the Boks and he’s, he came and I learned an awful lot off him at Munster just in terms of what it is to be a coach and the craft that is behind what he does. He’s a phenomenal coach, he’s probably the best coach I’ve ever come across. He’s just brilliant. But he’s also a qualified physiotherapist, so he’s allowed to be right on the sideline. So he can relay in messages, they’re not coming second hand. The majority of the times coaches will get either… they’ll probably get a player who’s not involved in the 23 because they’ll have sat in the meetings during the week, they’ll understand the messages that the coaches are trying to get on. But when you’ve got Jacques there on the sideline, he will have teed up who are the danger men for England, what are the cues or what are the triggers around certain power plays that England look to launch and then he’s seeing that on the field and he’s shouting that message directly firsthand onto the Boks. So he is a massive advantage there, and they’d be foolish not to take advantage of it.”
Wonder will a few coaches be nipping out to get a physio degree in the next few years.
On Episode 13 of The JOEpan Rugby Show, Rob O’Hanrahan and Jerry Flannery dissect the Springboks’ mauling of England, why South Africa “needed” this World Cup and how the Saracens ruling gives everyone else “a little bit of hope”. WATCH below:
