While Flannery served as scrum coach in that time – before later expanding his role to that of a forwards coach – he has more recently been employed as a lineout and defence coach with English Premiership outfit Harlequins.

Additionally, the 2009 Grand Slam winner also spent some time with South Africa in advance of last year’s Rugby World Cup in France and this clearly left a strong impression on another of his former Munster colleagues.

Rassie Erasmus has returned to combining Director of Rugby and head coach duties with the Springboks in the wake of Nienaber’s departure to Leinster and he has identified Flannery as the perfect candidate to take over the defensive reins ahead of Ireland’s tantalising two-test tour of South Africa this July.

“Obviously he would be very familiar with the way that Rassie would do stuff, because it will be very similar to how we did things when we were at Munster. Jerry actually spent some time with us in the World Cup preparation. I think he was there a week or two with the Boks,” Nienaber explained at a Leinster media briefing from Mullingar RFC yesterday.

“He understands how the environment operates and the players would know him. He won’t be unfamiliar to them. He actually helped us a little bit with the hookers. He added value with the line-out throws, him being an international hooker himself. Just adding things that he saw.

“I think it’s a good opportunity for Jerry and I think he will be good for the Boks. I think both of those appointments, him and Tony Brown, are excellent appointments. They will add value to the team. I think he will be a good fit for South Africa.”

Having spent the guts of six years with the Springboks as either an assistant coach or a head coach – helping the southern hemisphere men to win World Cup titles in both roles – Nienaber has been slowly reacclimatising to the club scene in the past few months.

After an unbroken run of seven games following his eventual arrival to the eastern province – starting with an interprovincial showdown against Connacht in the United Rugby Championship on December 1 – Leinster have been idle since their Champions Cup pool stage win over Leicester Tigers on January 20.

Leo Cullen’s side will be back in action in a top-of-the-table clash with Benetton at the RDS this Saturday, but both teams are set to be missing large chunks of their squad owing to international commitments.

Yet the presence of so many frontline stars in Ireland’s Six Nations squad has afforded Nienaber a chance to work more closely with the fringe players in the Leinster set-up. While there are still elements of international rugby that he continues to miss, he cited this as one of the big advantages of being part of the club system on these shores.

“You watch the Six Nations games and you almost think back to how tense it is and how tense the environment is, how much is at stake. On one side you miss that, because I think that is where you feel alive. Where you have everything to lose, that’s where you feel alive,” Nienaber added.

“That’s the beauty of international rugby, but then the positive of club rugby is again where we are now within our group. Where you don’t just get the top guys in, where you have to grow squad depth within your squad with the young players coming through.

“It’s nice to be at a club, especially Leinster. The demand is always going to be massive. The demands that the fans and the club will have, and the players will have themselves, will equal the demands that you will have from an international team.”