'You just learn': Springboks' verdict on All Blacks staff changes

Springboks boss Jacques Nienaber has given his reaction to last weekend’s shake-up of the All Blacks staff, Crusaders’ Jason Ryan being appointed forwards coach with John Plumtree and defence coach Brad Mooar exiting the Ian Foster coaching ticket.

The changes were announced a fortnight out from the first of two Rugby Championship matches between the Springboks and the All Blacks in South Africa, a series that begins in Nelspruit on August 6 and continues the following Saturday in Johannesburg.

Nienaber’s Springboks head into the tournament on the back of their 2-1 series win over Wales, an outcome in sharp contrast to the All Blacks who lost out 1-2 at home to Ireland, a defeat that sparked the review that resulted in the staff changes. 

However, asked if these types of sudden changes during a Test season would be unsettling to the All Blacks, Nienaber played down the impact by referencing what happened to the Springboks in 2019 in the lead-up to the World Cup. 

Attack consultant Swys de Bruin stepped down in mid-August following a Rugby Championship draw versus the All Blacks and it left the Springboks scrambling to fill the vacancy with just weeks remaining before the start of the World Cup. 

They didn’t do too badly coping with the upheaval, going on to win the World Cup with ex-Ireland full-back Felix Jones hurriedly introduced to the coaching ticket. Speaking at a midweek media briefing in Mpumalanga ten days out from the Springboks hosting the All Blacks, Nienaber didn’t believe the staff changes would be a problem for Foster’s team. “No, I don’t think so,” he said. 

“If you think back to 2019, we were in the Rugby Championship, how many games away from the World Cup, and the change with Swys happened after New Zealand. There were two games against Argentina and one game against Japan and then we went into a World Cup and we got Felix Jones in less than a month. I guess it is what it is, you just learn to deal with it.”

Quizzed if the Springboks were tempted to call on either Plumtree or Mooar to possibly assist them as a consultant ahead of the All Blacks matches, Nienaber added: “No, it wasn’t discussed.”

What Nienaber did admit to was that the challenge posed by the All Blacks would be different from Wales. “New Zealand, if you look at the athletes they have and look at the skill set they have available to them, it’s probably going to be a game that is built around a lot of continuity and maybe moving the ball around a bit. 

“Then again, they don’t shy away from set-piece battles, which they showed against Ireland, so it is going to be a blend of set-piece battles and then also probably a little more continuity than what we saw in the Welsh series. 

“In saying that I thought Wales really tested us, especially if you think of the try they scored against us in Cape Town from the restart. They kept the ball alive and kept good continuity going. It’s probably going to be a challenge like that.     

“We had a nice review on Monday,” he added, “a reality check of where we currently are at and what we have to improve, what goals we set in the Wales series and where we excelled and other instances where we didn’t show as much growth as we thought we would. It’s basically fixing our own stuff."