The Springboks have moved to shore up their problems in defence by bringing in defensive coaching specialist Jacques Nienaber on a consultant basis.
The Springboks missed tackle count has been rising for the last two seasons so they have turned to the Super Rugby franchise that has the best defense in the tournament.
Nienaber, 38, the defence coach of Western Province and the Stormers, has been released by his union to work as part of the Springbok management on a short-term basis. Nienaber joined the Springbok squad with the rest of the management on Monday.
“We all know the importance of defence at Rugby World Cup tournaments and we had long planned to bring in a defence specialist to add to our coaching team, ” said Springbok coach, Peter de Villiers, on Tuesday.
“We have wanted to add Jacques for a while and I’d like to thank Western Province for releasing him to us on a short-term basis. ”
Nienaber has helped establish the Cape Town union’s teams as some of the most defensively efficient in Southern Hemisphere rugby.
The Stormers conceded the fewest tries in Super Rugby in each of the past two seasons, a feat duplicated by Western Province in the 2010 and 2009 Currie Cup campaigns.
Re-active appointment in stead of a Pro-active appointment which should have been done the minute the Stormers were knocked out of the Super Rugby Competition.
Hopefully this is not too late, but I fear it might be.
“The Wallabies have discovered first hand that they will encounter a full-strength Springboks at Kings Park on Saturday night, not the rag-tag mob that recently lost its way in Australia and New Zealand.
When the Wallabies arrived at Durban airport late on Sunday night, they bumped straight into a large contingent of Springboks players who were returning to their Test squad after being unavailable for the early Tri Nations matches because of injury.
As one observer said, when Matfield and company wandered past: ”They certainly don’t look like a bunch of crocks to me”
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