Erasmus, Nienaber won’t share Bok, Irish secrets: ‘It’s about trust’

Ireland are expected to have slight insight into the inner workings of the Springbok environment, due to former head coach Jacques Nienaber now plying his trade with URC giants Leinster, where the bulk of the Irish squad come from, according to Bok coach Rassie Erasmus.

However, Erasmus doesn’t believe that Nienaber would share any serious information about the team, while he also doesn’t expect to receive any himself despite their previous close working relationship.

Nienaber and Erasmus worked together for many years, including at Munster in Ireland previously, and with the Boks during Erasmus’ first stint as head coach, and then when he became Director of Rugby, so both know each other incredibly well.

Irish insight into Boks and vice versa

“They will definitely have a bit of insight (into how the Boks work). But Jacques phones me every night and tells me everything about Ireland. No, I’m joking,” said Erasmus with a laugh.

“Rugby is a professional game and certainly he will implement things there (at Leinster) that worked for us here. Some of them you can clearly see, and are working, and some of them are not working because players, countries and cultures are different.

“Coaches are also different when you are in other countries and cultures.

“I remember when I was at Munster I was a bit out of my comfort zone. I didn’t always read (certain) body language and when you say something you sometimes aren’t sure if they (the players) understood what you were trying to get across.”

Erasmus continued: “What you can see nowadays on TV and if you follow teams on Twitter, they post all their drills and stuff a lot. So you can see who is starting, who is wearing the bib and who isn’t. Those kinds of things.

“So one thing I can promise you is, I will never put Jacques in a position where he has the people he is working with and the team he currently loves, which is Leinster, not trusting him because of helping us.

“But I also trust him not to tell them names of moves and calls that we use. So I am not worried about that.”

New Irish No 10

Erasmus is thus looking forward to an exciting battle against the Irish, who will be missing arguably their greatest ever player, Johnny Sexton, who retired after last year’s World Cup, but have up and coming star Jack Crowley taking over the flyhalf reins.

“The ref has it much easier now, since his (Sexton’s) retirement,” joked Erasmus with a smile.

“I always said when we played against Johnny that he really frustrated us, but it would be nice to be in his team. We have a lot of respect for him in how he played and could command games and respect.

“But this young flyhalf (Crowley) is not scared. He plays the game on the gainline, he goes for the cross kick if he wants to and he doesn’t shy away from tackling.

“I am not sure if they will start with (Craig) Casey or Mur (Connor Murray at scrumhalf). They might go with Casey because he plays with him (Crowley for Munster).

“But at that age you don’t feel the pressure of Test match rugby as much until you realise what you are a part of, and sometimes that is good.”