Boks will relish test against Six Nations champs Ireland, warns Nienaber

The Leinster defence coach is eagerly anticipating the meeting of the world's top two teams this summer.

Senior coach Jacques Nienaber during a Leinster rugby squad training session at UCD. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Eaten bread and all that… Three days since Ireland clinched back-to-back Six Nations titles, 10 since a Grand Slam slipped from their grasp in London, and thoughts turn all too quickly to the summer and a lip-smacking tour of South Africa.

Jacques Nienaber can understand this bubbling anticipation.

A two-time World Cup winning coach with the Springboks, and now domiciled in Dublin as Leinster’s defence coach, he has a unique insight into just how big the games in Pretoria and Durban will be for people and participants in both countries.

Ireland's last trip to South Africa was scuppered by the covid pandemic, like so many other sporting plans, so there is a rarity to this head-to-head that is unusual in this day of more, more, more rather than less.

“I was there six years and we only played Ireland twice,” said Nienaber. “We don’t get tested against them often, which we would have loved. They will cherish having Ireland there because they are number two in the world.

“It will be a 1-2 clash going into that series. It’s only two Test matches so both will have a good crack at it to get a series win. It will be something they will look forward to. The last time they played in South Africa was 2016.

“I was defence coach for those three Test matches before I came to Munster so it’s eight years since they’ve been in South Africa. I know South Africa, the public, the players, they would love to have Ireland there.” 

Andy Farrell’s side finds itself in the odd situation of having clinched a second successive Six Nations, losing their only game in Twickenham by a point and to an injury-time drop goal, and still having holes poked in their achievement.

Brian O’Driscoll and others have sought to counter any quibbles over their achievement and the nature of it. They are absolutely right in that, but it’s hardly sacrilege to point out the side looked to lose energy and momentum in the final two rounds.

And that their peak was reached on opening night in Marseille.

Nienaber’s take on this was always going to be interesting. And it’s probably more nuanced than the fact that any talk of fatigued players – whether mentally or physically – is something to be stopped at the front door in UCD as they look ahead to the close of the club season.

The two World Cups claimed by South Africa in 2019 and 2023 were not without their wrinkles. New Zealand had their number on the first weekend at the first of those tournaments and Ireland got the better of them, just, in Pool B last year in Paris.

Neither defeat mattered a jot when Siya Kolisi got his hands on the Webb Ellis.

“To win a back-to-back competition like the Six Nations is massive and one must see it for that,” said Nienaber. “You are the target, you are the [team] that everyone wants to play against. The opposition can’t wait to play against Ireland.

“The same will happen with South Africa, I think the two Test matches against Ireland sold out in like an hour or two. All the tickets are gone because everyone wants to test themselves against the best.

“Ireland want to test themselves against South Africa, the world champions currently. South Africa want to test themselves against Ireland, the northern hemisphere champions.

“Sometimes you get in such a habit of winning - I’m talking about the country, not the team or the players - they are so used to Ireland winning that sometimes the way they win may not be what they want but they won back-to-back Six Nations.

“I’m not saying people aren’t celebrating it, I’m just saying the energy levels... Teams get themselves up to play against Ireland because they were the top team.” 

Leinster are in a different space now having failed to claim a trophy this last two seasons and they will have to negotiate an unspecified number of weeks without lock James Ryan who has had a procedure on his bicep injury since missing the last two Six Nations ties.

That leaves him a major doubt for the Investec Champions Cup round of 16 tie against Leicester Tigers on April 6. Hugo Keenan, who missed last week’s win against Scotland with a hi[ injury, is being assessed on his return to the club.