Jacques Nienaber: winning all that matters in knockout games

FOCUSSED: Senior coach Jacques Nienaber during Leinster rugby squad training at UCD in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Perception is everything.

The consensus on Saturday evening was that Leinster had got away with one in holding off a Northampton Saints comeback, doing just about enough to make another Champions Cup final.

The province looked home and hosed at 2-3 up and an hour played at Croke Park and yet they almost let slip that 17-point advantage, just as they had done when La Rochelle came to Dublin 12 months ago for the final played across the Liffey.

The commentary since has focused in the main on that last 20 minutes rather than the first 60. The last quarter has been swept for evidence that Leinster remain brittle down the stretch. Jacques Nienaber’s perception? Very different.

The Leinster senior coach is no stranger to slim margins. His South Africa side won a World Cup the other side of Christmas by winning three successive knockout games by the smallest of margins. Three points to spare? It’s almost a luxury.

“How can I put it? Playing in a final or semi-final, you must get there,” he explained after training in UCD on Monday. “You must get over the line and it is not going to be perfect. That’s knockout rugby for you. That’s two top teams playing.

“The bottom line is you must just get over the line. If it’s for three points, if it’s worth 15 points, it doesn’t matter, you must just get over the line. There’s no bonus points, for semis, knockout, finals. You just must do everything in your power to win.

“It will be the same when we go to the URC quarter-finals. This weekend [at home to Ospreys] it’s still bonus points up for grabs, points difference up for grabs, but once you get into the knockout it’s purely just win the game.”

Perception.

Northampton’s George Furbank voiced the opinion after full-time that Leinster had ‘shut up shop’ in that run down the stretch. That’s what he sensed and it’s the kind of impression that would give any opponent the scent of blood.

You could back that up by highlighting Leinster’s failure to score after James Lowe’s 44th-minute try. And by the frantic scenes that layered on each other in the Leinster half of the field as the English side pushed for that knockout blow.

“It depends on what he means by closing up shop. Is it we didn’t attack anymore, or our attacking opportunities? We had a good lineout strike loaded and we lost a lineout. Maybe his perception of shutting up shop is that we just didn’t execute.

“We got a 22-metre entry. I think in the last four minutes, we kept the ball for 19 phases, where there was opportunity to maybe take the edge, and a poor pass meant that we just couldn’t get the next pass away that would have got us into space. That’s execution.”

This is the nub of it.

We can all offer our takes on whether Leinster did or didn’t take their foot off the accelerator, but no-one would carp with Nienaber’s take that they have to nail these sorts of moments if they are to better Toulouse in the decider in London.

That starts long before the final on May 25th.

Nienaber spent much of Sunday reviewing the Saints footage while throwing an eye over the Toulouse-Harlequins game, but he was already digging through video of the Ospreys too before making the most of the rare good weather with a braai.

The hope is that Garry Ringrose and Hugo Keenan can finally shake off persistent injuries that have kept them sidelined for far too long. Both are still being “assessed” while Tommy O’Brien is fit again and Ciaran Frawley too despite taking a knock on Saturday.

There is still no word on James Ryan, who had surgery on an arm issue in March, and whether he has any shot at making London but Leinster have parked talk of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for now.

“I said it to the lads,” Nienaber explained. “You can lift your head and look there at the horizon, and you will fall over the stone right in front of your face, and fall on your nose. You’re only as good as your last game.

“For us, we spoke about it in the changing room. Let’s enjoy the win, let’s enjoy each other’s company, but it can’t be a big party night … It’s always a challenge, but they’re professional rugby players and that is what they’ll need to do.”