On an eventful weekend for Irish rugby, in which the four provinces recorded a quartet of URC wins, the stand-out off field news was undoubtedly Leinster’s surprising and eye-catching recruitment of Jacques Nienaber after the World Cup.
First and foremost, to lure the current head coach of the reigning world champions to work under Leo Cullen represents a huge statement of intent by Leinster and underlines their status as one of the elite brands in the global game.
In the process, Leinster are replacing one former international head coach in the Racing-bound Stuart Lancaster with another.
Cullen hailed the development as “fantastic”, while Nienaber said it was “an honour” to be joining such a “high-performance environment” although quite what Nienaber’s exact role will be was not outlined in the province’s statement on Saturday beyond saying he is a replacement for Lancaster as senior coach.
Nienaber, given his track record as a defence coach and the Springboks’ brand of rugby, appears an odd choice at face value, and Lancaster will be a tough act to follow after eight productive years at Leinster.
But Nienaber’s inside knowledge of South African rugby at a time when their franchises are becoming a growing force in the Champions Cup as well as the URC, and his time in Irish rugby with Munster, certainly brings invaluable experience.
The South African head coach joins a ticket which also includes a former assistant coach with the Crusaders, the most successful franchise in the southern hemisphere, in the increasingly influential Andrew Goodman and it also appears as if Sean O’Brien’s role might be increased to include working on the defence.
O’Brien was alongside Cullen in the away coaches’ box in Johannesburg on Saturday as Leinster underlined their unrivalled production line and strength in depth to recover from a 15-point deficit in beating the Lions 39-36.
Sam Prendergast had a strikingly assured man-of-the-match display on his debut, with fullback Chris Cosgrove also outstanding, as Leinster extended their unbeaten campaign to 22 matches.
Munster also won on South African soil with the performance of the weekend when ending the Stormers’ 20-match unbeaten home run in their 26-24 victory on Saturday.
Munster thus sealed their place in the quarter-finals and, just as importantly, in next season’s Champions Cup for a 29th campaign.
Connacht also ensured all four provinces will advance to the play-offs with a commanding 38-19 win over Cardiff at a packed Sportsground on Saturday evening. They sit sixth, but with the Bulls (who host Leinster next Saturday) just a point behind and the Sharks (who entertain Munster) three adrift in eighth.
In light of Connacht’s convincing victory, it seemed all the more preposterous that Cardiff, currently 11th, are best placed of the Welsh regions to secure a place in the Champions Cup.
Seventh place would suffice for Connacht, provided neither Glasgow nor the Scarlets win the Challenge Cup. Connacht need to finish sixth to avoid that scenario.
Helpfully, perhaps, Connacht kick off last (at 7.35pm), by which stage either Leinster or Munster might have done them a favour. But if the Bulls and Sharks both win, Andy Friend’s side will need to beat Glasgow in Scotstoun next Saturday night to also qualify for next season’s Champions Cup.
“We set out every year to reach the play-offs,” said Friend following his last home game of a productive and consistent five years as head coach.
“We always say we want to be contenders, we want to be in contending positions to be in the knock-out stages. We did it for Europe. We’d love to have gone another [round] to get to the [Challenge Cup] quarter-finals but we didn’t.
“But now we’ve got to go again because you want to try and climb that ladder as high as you can,” added Friend, before highlighting another strong spur for finishing higher than eighth.
“Respectfully, you don’t want to be finishing eighth, you don’t want to go up to bloody Dublin and play those blokes. You don’t!
“So, we don’t want to finish there, we want to finish somewhere else. Where that is, that will probably be determined by us and others. But, again, you get to this stage of the season and you want to keep winning. So that’s our job to try and do next week.”
