The local guys are not always the right guys, says Nienaber

SPOTLIGHT: Former Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber believes that having South African players plying their trade overseas, helps the country in their quest to be the best in the world.

In an interview with the podcast The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast, hosted by Elma Smit and Bobby Skinstad, Nienaber revealed that his selection policy during his time in charge was based on picking the right players for the job, and not necessarily the best ones.

“It (playing abroad) broadens your guys’ exposure to top rugby, so it’s a good thing for us.”

Nienaber spoke candidly about the selection policy for which he was critizised initially for picking players that were not in-form at the time.

“The most important thing is to get the right people, not necessarily the best. When we do select the squad there’s probably players that are better than the ones we select in our squad, who are performing better, but the key thing is that they must be the right people for the environment,” he said.

“That’s why we sometimes get criticised selecting a squad; ‘Yes, this guy is on form and he’s far better than this guy.’

“You know what, the public are knowledgeable in South Africa, they are completely right, but sometimes that guy is not the right guy.”

The Springbok coach also said the decision to scrap their overseas policy ultimately proved beneficial to the national team.

Being forced to alter their eligibility laws back in 2019 after their top players kept on departing for big pay days in France, England and Japan forced South Africa aided the Boks’ cause in the long run.

Previously, a player needed to have played at least 30 Tests for the Boks to continue to be eligible for selection if playing overseas.

Since then the Boks have gone on to win consecutive World Cups, while it has also enabled up-and-coming players, who ultimately replaced those experienced internationals, to progress quicker through the ranks.

“I don’t think we have the monetary strength to pay our players the value that they are valued at. If you look at the squad that we took, it’s about half and half,” Nienaber said.

“About 15 or 16 players were plying their trade abroad and 15 or 16 plied their trade in South Africa.

“Those guys abroad, I don’t know what their salaries are, but if they were in South Africa there’s no way we would be able to pay them.

“I do think it’s good for us they go abroad, they play there and then you can still select them if they’re good enough.

“That really helped us win two World Cups. It works for us. If you think about the locks, Eben (Etzebeth) was with the Sharks but he was abroad in 2019, then you have Franco Mostert, Japan and France have the biggest monetary draw. The Top 14 has previously led the way in that regard, but the Asian competition is proving a huge attraction nowadays, especially for South African internationals.”

A number of Boks currently play in Japan, preferring to move to the Far East rather than putting their bodies through the wringer in the Top 14.

Plenty of top South African players have opted against playing in Europe, unlike Springbok captain Siya Kolisi, Handre Pollard and Andre Esterhuizen who are all currently in the Premiership.

“If all of them stayed in South Africa, there wouldn’t have been the (Ruan) Nortje’s and the young guys coming through now because they would have been blocked by them. You get the new guys who are playing in the United Rugby Championship.”

Nienaber made it clear that he thinks it is more ‘aligned’ with the Springboks’ Test season to head to Japan.

“We find it difficult with our URC players as well where we play our club competition in the northern hemisphere, but the Test matches are still with the southern hemisphere,” he said.

“What we can do is manage the players in South Africa and manage their load. We took them out of rugby in the Six Nations for a reconditioning block because otherwise they would have just played and played and played.

“That is the bad thing for those who play abroad, they don’t get managed; they just play and play and play.

“That’s why I think a lot of players are going to play in Japan because the Japanese season is a lot more aligned with the South African international season. There’s a lot more flexibility there.

“The challenges of France and the Premiership is managing the players’ loads.”