Paul O’Connell praises World Cup-winning coach Jacques Nienaber’s work with Irish players

PRAISE: Paul O'Connell has praised Jacques Nienaber. Pic Credit: ©INPHO/Steve Haag Sports/Christiaan Kotze

Ireland forwards coach Paul O’Connell praised former Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber's work with Irish players.

Nienaber was head coach when the Boks won Rugby World Cup 2023 and has since joined Leinster where his work has been roundly applauded, even though the club came up short of silverware this season.

With the first of two-Tests against the world champions just days away, O’Connell’s comments were a timely reminder to the Springboks that Ireland are tapping into all the resources at their disposal as well.

“It helps our players because one of the things I notice for us is the better the coaching in the provinces the better they’re coming into us,” O’Connell said.

“They’ve added another layer to how they defend and think about the game in the last year with Jacques. That’s been a brilliant addition to them.

“He’s been very forthcoming to them with information, he’s all in with them. It’s brilliant.

“He’s been very forthcoming about what they did and how they did it and our boys share a little bit of that with us. Some of it is helpful to us, some of it can be a distraction because we’ve got to focus on what’s important to us.”

O’Connell declined to turn up the heat regarding Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth’s comments referring to the Ireland team being “arrogant” prior to the anticipated two-Test tour.

Etzebeth made the comment on an episode of The Rugby Pod with Jim Hamilton earlier this year. He claimed some Irish players said “see you in the final” after Ireland had beaten the Boks 13-8 in a pool match at Stade de France during Rugby World Cup 2023.

Etzebeth felt it was a bit arrogant to think that way. Naturally, Etzebeth’s statement made the rounds in the media across the world.

O'Connell, though, decided against upping the ante on what is essentially an opinion.

“If we won the World Cup we probably would have been asked to go on a few podcasts as well,” was O’Connell’s response to Etzebeth’s comment as well as some other lines from players such as Damian de Allende.

“We haven’t spoken about it a lot. We never tend to do, around this kind of thing. It tends to become a reaction. If you are a head coach as long as Rassie (Erasmus) is you have to figure out a way to enjoy doing the media stuff. He seems to enjoy it and he’s good at it. We haven’t paid a lot of attention to it.”

Etzebeth was asked about his appearance on the podcast at the Boks’ team naming in Pretoria where coach Rassie Erasmus included 20 members of the victorious RWC 2023 squad in the team for Saturday.

“I would say the Irish media definitely targeted me after that incident,” Etzebeth said, referring to his podcast appearance. “I said what I said.

“We will never, after a game, tell a team that we’ll see you in the final if there is so much rugby still to be played.

“Maybe that was their way of saying that we are a good side and that we might make it all the way through, but people interpreted what I said wrong and took it out of context.”

While the barbs might be flying, there is a game of rugby – a big one at that – to be played at Loftus. And that’s where O’Connell and the Ireland team prefer to keep their focus.

And key to that is making sure every minute of their preparation counts, given the brief time they have to prepare for the tour.

“I was saying it about South Africa, continuity is always a big help, and we have that too,” O’Connell said from the team’s training base in the north of Johannesburg.

"Some players that aren't here would've been an important part of what we do, but we have a continuity of coaching, a continuity of leadership in the group and a continuity of ideas.

“It is a real challenge in international rugby, trying to come in and perform well with a relatively small preparation window.

“In the Six Nations, four of five weeks in you should know what you're about for sure, but it is a real challenge coming in, especially when you get the players after playing in Europe on a Saturday, you get them on a Monday and you're conscious of how much information you put into them.

“The continuity certainly helps us, and it's helped us start quite well in recent times.” Erasmus used his media time to joke and drop hints about late changes to the side, suggesting that the Boks might go 7-1 split between forwards and backs instead of the named 6-2 on the bench.

It could be mind games of course, but the Boks have used a 7-1 split before – three times – including against Ireland at the World Cup.

“There’s one or two niggles (in the squad), we might still on Thursday go to a 7-1 as well,” Erasmus said. “We will give it until Thursday. I don’t want to elaborate on that too much at this point.” The inclusion of Stormers sensation Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who can play just about anywhere in the backline, would certainly make this a possibility.

One of the Bok problems appears to be with scrumhalf Faf de Klerk. If he is ruled out, Grant Williams could come in to start with No 8 Evan Roos being included on the bench.

As ever with Erasmus, all options are open.