VIDEO: Are the Boks that predictable?
The style and tactics of Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber and South Africa’s Director of Rugby Erasmus appears not to have changed much since their days with Irish province Munster.
British and Irish Lions captain Conor Murray believes the time he spent with them at Thomond Park, Limerick, has given him some insights into the inner workings of the Bok set-up.
Murray was named captain of the tourists after an unfortunate shoulder injury ruled first-choice skipper Alun Wyn Jones out of the tour.
The 32-year-old Irish scrumhalf fronted up to the media at a virtual briefing on Tuesday – a day after the B&I Lions arrived in South Africa.
He said that while some things will change, he believes he saw enough at the World Cup that much of the playbook they used at Munster could still be in use.
“I have worked with them all,” he said of Erasmus, Nienaber and Felix Jones – a compatriot of Murray, who played 13 Tests for Ireland and 90 games for Munster.
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“What they’ve done over the past couple of years, obviously winning the World Cup, has been really impressive,” Murray said.
“Watching them in the World Cup and having played at Munster under them, there were similar ideas in what they were doing and what they were showing.
“There’ll be areas like that, [where] you have a little insight into.
“However, everyone is doing analysis on each other, everyone knows each other, as well as they can.
“If something pops into my head about a certain way Jacques [Nienaber] or Rassie [Erasmus] wanted us to play at Munster and we see it in the South African side, that might be a little insight.
“At the same time, with Felix [Jones] there, he is a guy who is always thinking about different things.
“You’ve got to be prepared for surprises.
“You don’t always get what you expect when you run out onto the pitch and you’ve got to be quite adaptable.
“It’s a bit of an insight having worked under them, but at the same time it could be completely different.”
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* Picture credit: @lionsofficial
