Nienaber insight helping Ireland prepare for SA

Insight from South Africa World Cup-winning coach Jacques Nienaber is helping Ireland prepare for their upcoming two-match Test series against the Springboks.

Speaking to media ahead of the first meeting between the sides in Pretoria on Saturday, Ireland assistant coach Paul O'Connell revealed that Nienaber, now a senior coach at Leinster, has been forthcoming in passing on to his charges at the Irish province some of the knowledge which helped him guide the South Africans to a fourth World Cup success in 2023.

"He’s been very forthcoming with the information around what they did and how they did it. He’s all in with them [Leinster] which is brilliant," said O'Connell.

"Our boys [Leinster members of the Irish squad] shared a little bit of that with us. Some of it is helpful to us, some of it can be a bit of a distraction because we’ve got to focus on what is important to us.

"I remember back in the day you used to spend a lot of time on opposition teams and it can be a distraction because you’ve got to get right what you’re doing right and we struck that balance well in recent years and it’s important we continue with that."

Ireland have won their last three encounters with the back-to-back World Cup winners, including a 13-8 victory in their World Cup Pool B match in Paris last year.

They have never won a Test series in South Africa however, having only achieved one previous victory from their 10 previous matches away against the Boks, a 26-20 triumph in 2016.

O'Connell says Nienaber's positive influence at Leinster is being felt in the Irish squad.

"They have added another level to how they defend and how they think about the game in the last year with Jacques, and that’s been a brilliant addition to them," explained the former Ireland second row.

"I think it helps our players in that one of the things I notice for us is that the better the coaching in the provinces the better the players are coming in to us."

Ireland meanwhile are aiming to build on their Six Nations success after a period of some change in personnel, including the retirement of long-time captain and talisman Johnny Sexton.

Only a one-point defeat by England at Twickenham denied them a second consecutive Grand Slam.

"We had a bit of a turnover of players, Johnny in particular moving on," said the Ireland forwards coach.

"We would have loved to have won the Grand Slam. We could have done it, we mightn’t have deserved to have won it, but we could have done it.

"But going on to win the Six Nations, especially with a little bit of turnover in the team, was excellent."

The squad's attention is now firmly on the forthcoming challenge.

"It’s funny how the game goes, the boys really celebrating any victory they have with any team, but you’ve got to move on quickly then and the next thing becomes the biggest, most important thing ever," added O'Connell.

"We’ve never won a Test series in South Africa. As an Irish team we’ve only ever won one game down here, so this is a brilliant place for this team to be now."