Jacques Nienaber on next Thomond visit: 'I don't think they'll be buying me pints'

Nienaber will be well ensconced in the Leinster coaching ticket by the time they appear at Thomond on St Stephen’s Day and his return will come just over six years after his last involvement with Munster.

OLD STOMPING GROUND: Senior coach Jacques Nienaber during a Leinster Rugby media conference at UCD in Dublin. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Leinster players and supporters are accustomed to the ‘warm’ welcome that awaits when they pitch up at Thomond Park come Christmas and Jacques Nienaber certainly isn’t expecting it to be any different for him later this month.

A two-time World Cup-winning coach with South Africa, Nienaber has now swapped the Springboks’ green livery for Leinster blue having once worn Munster red during a 16-month stint in Limerick as part of Rassie Erasmus’s staff.

Nienaber was actually in country for the interpro meeting of the two rivals two weekends ago, but he is not believed to have attended that encounter at the Aviva Stadium, which Leinster won narrowly.

However, he will be well ensconced in the Leinster coaching ticket by the time they appear at Thomond on St Stephen’s Day and his return will come just over six years after his last involvement with Munster before returning home to South Africa.

That was a controversial chapter at the time with Erasmus originally insisting that he had no intention of leaving Munster for a job with his home union and Nienaber was later a key part of his plans in resurrecting the fortunes of their national team.

“I think I'll get more flak from the Munster supporters than from the South African supporters,” he said when asked about his recent change of employer. “I mean, South Africa supporters, we were open and honest.

“The move was announced way before the World Cup, and it was for personal reasons back then. I really, honestly think I would lose my family if I kept on battling away at the international rugby, I felt I needed a bit of a break from that.

"I don’t know. We'll probably find out when we go to Thomond Park in a couple of weeks. I don't think they'll buy me pints.” 

Nienaber went into some detail on his reasons for quitting the Springboks after two successful World Cup cycles with the length of time spent away from his family the main driver in the new career direction.

"International rugby is a little bit different in terms of the duration of time you're away," he said. “You only play 13 Test matches but for us, South Africa, I think I was away in this World Cup year for six months and one day from my family and my home.

"Although there's 28 games or more that you play for the club, you're more frequently at home. We're away this weekend [v La Rochelle], but I'm at home during the week, which is something international rugby doesn't give you. You're away and you're always away.”