Springboks: 'The other big thing that we would like to achieve'

Springboks boss Jacques Nienaber has identified the two major growth areas for his team in 2022. The South African squad has assembled in Pretoria for the first week of its build to the three-Test July series versus Wales and the coach has outlined what he will be looking for in the weeks and months ahead.

Left without a match in 2020 due to the pandemic, the Springboks returned to the field in 2021 where they eight of their 13 Test matches. That included a series victory over the touring British and Irish Lions and a third-place Rugby Championship finish before their end-of-year European tour culminated in a last-gasp defeat to England at Twickenham.

Nienaber has used his time since then to sift through all the evidence of last year and ahead of next month’s start to their 2022 international calendar, he has pinpointed the items he wants to improve.

“From a rugby point of view we always try and develop our game and transform our game in terms of different levels,” he explained. “When we did the review of 2021 there were certain things that were good and there were certain aspects and for obvious reasons, I am not going to name all of them.

“But there are certain aspects that we definitely have to improve and that is the one area, the development of our Springbok rugby game on-field and then also the other big thing that we would like to achieve is create depth in our squad.

“Squad depth can be getting youngsters in but it can also be getting more experience into players, getting them exposed in more Test matches and getting more Test match experience underneath them. It’s getting some young blood in or some youth in but also getting experience into your already experienced players.”

With two South African franchises still involved in the URC playoffs and other Springboks playing for their clubs in England or France, this week’s initial Test squad gathering in Pretoria has been restricted to 17 players but Nienaber isn’t complaining.

“Listen, if you go back to when 2018 when myself and Rassie (Erasmus) just came back from Ireland, according to regulation nine you only get the players the Sunday before a Test match so we are in a very fortunate position to have 17 players here and have the ability to prepare with them. We are happy.

“In the past, in 2018 when we played our first Test match against Wales in Washington before the England series, we only got the players on that Sunday (before) and some only arrived on Monday. The preparation (now) is awesome. We almost have a full team available so our focus is we do a little bit of team stuff, as much as we can, and we focus on fundamentals and mini-unit stuff.”

There is plenty of speculation about who might be called up when the club season is over in South Africa and Europe, but Nienaber refused to add fuel to the guessing game. “We are not going to speculate on the squad, that is why we haven’t announced it,” he insisted.

“They are currently playing with their franchises and to speculate now on who is in, who is out, that is the whole reason why we delayed the announcement of the squad… I’m not going to speculate on players who are not in the squad.”