'It sickens us': Nienaber responds to angry Leinster fans
SPOTLIGHT: Senior coach Jacques Nienaber had to answer some tough questions after Leinster’s Champions Cup campaign came to an end against Northampton over the weekend.
The Irish giants are trying to pick up the pieces after they suffered a 34-37 defeat in Saturday’s semifinal.
A lot of angry fans want head coach Leo Cullen to be replaced, while Nienaber also hasn’t escaped criticism after Leinster’s famed defence crumbled against the Saints.
The Irish giants conceded five tries in the match and according to stats, Leinster’s tackle success rate was not up to standard.
They made 97 tackles and missed 41.
Some fans have also questioned Cullen’s selections with All Black Jordie Barrett and top internationals Andrew Porter and Jack Conan playing off the bench.
There were also a couple of kickable penalties not taken late in the game which could have sent the contest into extra time.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, Nienaber said: “What would my message be to the Leinster fans?
“The thing that probably hurts the most is the fact that I think…the players have full control, but as coaches, we have some control because we have half-time, substitutions and that.
“For the fans, they don’t have control. The only thing that they can give is their full support.
“If you look at the fans, they gave everything they could.
“I can understand the frustration and the anger.
“That’s probably the thing that sickens us the most, for ourselves, the performance we put in.
“Unfortunately, the fans have to live with that, the result we got, which wasn’t what we wanted.”
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Not blaming Nienaber but their defense was definitely not good
— coolprof🏉 (@coolprof2) May 4, 2025
On the selections, Nienaber said it was about dominating the closing stages of the game.
“In terms of the team selection, as coaches we select the team we think will get us a result,” Nienaber added.
“If you look at all the games this season, that’s been the philosophy. Hindsight is always a perfect science.
“If we win the game nobody would have asked these questions and it would be, ‘Oh, what a brilliant tactic.’
“Lose the game and you have to live with the consequences of your decision.
“The second half, we won 19-10, so [a strong finish] was what we were looking for.
“At the end of the day, we selected a team we thought will get us the result, it didn’t and we will just have to live with the criticism we get.
“Going for the three [points], same thing there.
“You go for the three and let’s say you miss the kick, people will say, ‘You scored four tries with taking penalties five metres out.’
“In that moment they got a yellow card, if we didn’t convert the kick, people would say, ‘they had 14, why didn’t you go for the win?’
“Now, because we couldn’t score with the tap penalty or the maul I would probably say maybe we should have gone for the three.
“I can see both sides of the coin.”
