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The 'bad thing' Nienaber has accepted about latest Springboks loss
You’d imagine that yet another Springboks defeat, the ninth in the 23-match reign of Jacques Nienaber, would be the cause for grave concern for the head coach ten months out from his country’s 2023 World Cup title defence, but there was no inkling of any emergency when the latest excuses were aired in Dublin on Saturday night.
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If there is pressure, Nienaber certainly wasn’t showing it as he sifted through his reflections on the 19-16 defeat to Ireland, the Springboks’ primary World Cup pool opponents next September in France.
Instead, his perspective in the media auditorium in the bowels of the Irish stadium was essentially ‘nothing to see here, now please shuffle along quietly’.
History, after all, remains his trump card in this era of inconsistency, a sequence where his longest winning streak in charge remains three victories (it’s happened on two occasions) before another defeat laced with ample ifs, buts and maybes materialises, as was the case at Aviva Stadium.
In fairness, the history that Nienaber now repeatedly leans on is wholly impressive, the Springboks exorcising the ghosts of the early part of the Rassie Erasmus era to go and win the 2019 World Cup with Nienaber as the then-defence coach.
It’s quite the uplifting yarn and it was quickly referenced by the now-head coach when asked if losing an Autumn Nations Series game to Ireland had any relevance regarding what might transpire when the two countries go head-to-head again at the World Cup. “No, I don’t think so. I think you learn a lot of it is good preparation and obviously, it builds momentum or it doesn’t build momentum,” he reasoned.
“Ireland will go into the next games with a lot of momentum, but in 20-18 we lost 50 per cent of our games and you still win a World Cup. So when you lose your first pool match, history would say you can’t win a World Cup if you lose your first pool match. If you lose your first British and Irish Lions game you can’t win a series, but it is a myth.
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“But obviously, it [winning] builds confidence, it builds momentum, it creates the opportunity to maybe be creative in terms of the development of your game, development of team selection if you build momentum. So that’s the bad thing, it takes that away so you almost have to consolidate again, you have got to get back in winning ways to try and build momentum again.”
That won’t come easy next weekend. France in Marseille certainly isn’t the gimme that the Springboks will likely enjoy versus Italy in game three of their four-match November tour and it will be curious what the reaction will be in South Africa if the result next Saturday goes against Nienaber and co and his record become ten losses in 24.
When their go-to reliables don’t work efficiently, their alternatives are rather bare. “Our lineouts can be better, our maul was stopped from the word go and then our scrum can do much better,” admitted skipper Siya Kolisi, jumping into the post-game conversation in Dublin unprompted during one Nienaber lull. “Normally we dominate in those instances and that is what Ireland were really good at, they came prepared, they knew our maul which is one of our key things.”
Nienaber agreed. “They use their rolling maul quite well. They have scored against us, they scored against France, big teams, they scored against New Zealand twice, they have got a good rolling maul and they got an opportunity and they nailed it and we got a couple of opportunities that we didn’t nail. That pretty much shows that’s why they are No1 in the world, if they get a chance they capitalise.
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“The reality is we played Ireland, who are No1 in the world, away from home and we lost by three points and we had a couple of opportunities that we didn’t use and they did. That is the reality. For us, we must take the learnings out of it and we have got one week and then we play France. We need to learn quickly, improve on the things we must improve. Some things will take time, some things won’t, but we need to make sure we fix the fixable things.”
One of those unfixable things is sadly likely to be Lood de Jager’s shoulder. He has an unfortunate history with it and while the extent of his latest setback won’t be determined until further medical assessment, his availability for the remainder of the tour is doubtful.
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
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