Northampton turn to South African to take over as scrum coach

Jaco Pienaar is set to become the new scrum coach at Investec Champions Cup finalists Northampton Saints, replacing Matt Ferguson when he leaves Franklin’s Gardens at the end of the season.

Saints announced in January that Ferguson would be departing the club when his contract runs out at the end of June and have been seeking his replacement to join Phil Dowson’s coaching team later this summer.

The club acknowledged that Ferguson’s scrum division played a key role in Saints lifting the Gallagher Premiership trophy for the first time in a decade last season in the press release announcing his long goodbye.

Pienaar has spent the last three seasons working as the forwards coach for Suntory Goliath in Japan Rugby League One and spent four years with the Sharks before moving to the Far East.

Fixture

Investec Champions Cup

Northampton

20 - 28

Full-time

Bordeaux

All Stats and Data

Former Tuks and Blue Bulls U19 coach worked under Robert du Preez, the father of the three brothers Rob, Dan and Jean-Luc, who are chasing a Premiership semi-final place when they travel to Exeter Chiefs next weekend.

Dowson admitted to RugbyPass at the end of January that one of his biggest tasks was to work his way through the applications that had flooded in after it was announced that Ferguson was leaving.

“One of my projects over this PRC (Premiership Rugby Cup block) is to get stuck into that. I think that’s a work in progress as we stand.

“We need to evolve and keep changing, and having different messages and different delivery styles, I think, is important. Obviously, Ferg has had a huge impact at the club and that can’t be undermined.

“So, yeah, there are big boots to fill, on and off the field, in terms of what he does around the environment,” admitted the Black, Green and Gold’s boss, who is plotting the downfall of Bordeaux in Cardiff this weekend.