Captain30,741 posts
26 Jan 2020, 00:36
#1
26 Jan 2020, 00:36#1
Jacques Nienaber's rise to the Springbok coaching job was finally confirmed on Friday afternoon, but departing World Cup-winning coach Rassie Erasmus left no doubt that he would still be involved in every decision affecting the Springbok team.
Erasmus stepped back to return to the Director of Rugby position he was originally appointed in, with Nienaber, who has been his trusted lieutenant and Springbok defence coach for the past few years, stepping in to take over the coaching reins.
But while it may seem strange as Nienaber has never been a head coach at any level, it was clear Erasmus wanted someone he could trust to continue the continuity that was built up on the way to the World Cup win.
Erasmus stepped in when Allister Coetzee stepped down as Bok coach and in 18 months turned the Boks into World Champions.
In confirming the other changes, Matt Proudfoot's departure to join Eddie Jones in England means Deon Davids, the former Isuzu Southern Kings coach, will take over the forwards, while Irishman Felix Jones will continue as a consultant. Daan Human, the Bulls scrum coach, will also be a consultant for the Boks during the coming season.
But Erasmus made it clear what his role will be in the near future and that he will be very much part of the Bok set-up for the next few seasons while Nienaber will be the face of the team.
STILL BE IN THE COACH'S BOX
"Everyone knows when I was appointed as Director of Rugby a few years ago it was to work with the coaches and different departments. When Allister moved on then the focus was solely the Springbok team and the World Cup. We all realised it was impossible to do both jobs and by appointing a head coach now it will free up myself now to be a little bit more strategic.
"When I mean strategic, I am definitely not going to have an admin job where I sit in the office. If I can give you an example. My role for example with the Junior Springboks, it wouldn't be to help them win, that would be the job of the Junior Springbok coach. My job would be for the Junior Springboks to be holistically developed so when they come out on the other side of the Junior Springbok campaign, they must be better equipped to be better rugby players.
"In every department I know a bit about the technical stuff, but it would be more to make sure the systems we have serve what we want to achieve on the field and those systems are aligned so that we don't only win the World Cup every 12 years.
"Obviously my responsibility there with the Springboks will be for them to win. So yes, having a guy like Jacques there with the Springboks – I will still be part of the management team and be in the coach's box when we play. I will be accountable if we don't win. I will be part of the team selection when we select the team but having him there working more on the day to day things and giving me more time to focus on the strategic things, that was the thinking behind the whole system."
Nienaber said his appointment was to continue the same mantra that Erasmus had brought to the squad in the lead-up to the World Cup.
"The main thing for us is continuity and continuity for me will be to drive the goals we drew up in 2018 when we came over to the Springboks. It will be for us to win and keep on winning consistently. But with winning the big thing will be to focus on transformation, to focus on creating squad depth and to focus on giving experience to players to fill a pipeline which will continuously drive getting good results for the Springboks," he added.
