HE PREVIOUSLY WORKED with Jerry Flannery during a 16-month stint at Munster and having recently witnessed first-hand how he has evolved as a coach, Jacques Nienaber expects the former Ireland hooker to make a significant impact when he becomes part of the South African set-up later this month.

Although now in the role of senior coach at Leinster, Nienaber joined their provincial rivals in the summer of 2016 alongside his long-time coaching colleague Rassie Erasmus. Limerick native Flannery had already been on board as Munster’s scrum coach for a couple of years at that point and later took on the expanded role of forwards coach for a side that he represented as a player on 93 occasions.

He subsequently joined Harlequins as a lineout coach in June 2020 – 12 months on from bringing his time with Munster to an end – before he was also given the wider responsibility of defence coach at the English Premiership outfit.

Because a significant number of South African players have been contracted to Harlequins in recent seasons, Nienaber spent some time with their squad during his stint as Springboks head coach and got a sense of what Flannery was bringing to the table from a defensive perspective.

The former Ireland hooker was also welcomed into the South Africa camp in advance of last year’s World Cup in France and with Nienaber’s departure to Leinster having left a considerable void, it was announced last week that Flannery was to take on a new role as Springboks defence coach in the coming weeks.

“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,” Nienaber said.

“Jerry actually spent some time with us in the World Cup preparation. I think he was there a week or two with the Boks. He understands how the environment operates and the players would know him.

“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 and I’m not saying it took over from there and all that, but it just added value. I think it’s a good opportunity for Jerry and I think he will be good for the Boks.

“When we did our club visits of the abroad players, Harlequins was one of the clubs that we visited. They were always open to us being there. Watching their training sessions, watching their gym sessions, being in their team meetings. Obviously, I saw a lot of Jerry’s work as a defence coach there and I think he will be a good fit for South Africa.”

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

In the meantime, Ireland have recorded back-to-back victories in the opening two rounds of the Six Nations Championship. Speaking as a coach who prides himself on the defensive side of the game, Nienaber was unsurprisingly impressed with Ireland’s shut out of Italy in a 36-0 triumph at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday.

“I thought it was beautiful. I texted the lads afterwards. I just said that zero does look beautiful. For any defence coach, it’s a thing of beauty, but obviously the pressure you put on from an attacking point of view creates that.

“If you have scoreboard pressure like Ireland had, they have to take more risks and from deeper, which probably puts you in a better position. It is always a thing of beauty, a zero.”

It will very much be a case of getting back into the saddle this weekend for Leinster, however, as they return to action on Saturday with a top-of-the-table URC clash at home to Benetton.

Although Ciarán Frawley has been released back to the province for this game, another member of the Blues’ lsquad will be hopeful of making a long-awaited return to first-team duty.

Ross Byrne hasn’t featured for Leinster since picking up an injury in the early moments of their URC meeting with Munster at the Aviva Stadium on 25 November. While both he and Jamie Osborne will be assessed further as the week goes on (having increased their training load ahead of Benetton’s visit to the RDS), Nienaber said there remains a chance that the out-half could feature at some point on Saturday.

“We’ll have a better idea tomorrow but he is training with us. I’m not 100% sure. He’s done some training, he’s done all his contact stuff and now the last step is being part of the squad and team training,” Nienaber said of Byrne.

“Then, as coaches, we will have to see if we are happy with his form in training sessions and then the medics have to sign him off. That decision will probably get made later in the week.”

Daire Walsh