'There's no silver bullet': Nienaber brings Leinster back down to earth
SPOTLIGHT: Jacques Nienaber wanted to make something clear to Irish media during his first official press conference as Leinster’s senior coach this week.
The former Bok head coach was accompanied by head coach Leo Cullen and the questions came thick and fast in terms of what he would bring to Leinster.
It all happened ahead of Leinster’s big Champions Cup opener against La Rochelle this weekend. The French team has beaten Leinster in the last two Champions Cup Finals.
Nienaber won’t be using his World Cup Bok recipe at the Irish province, but he did have some advice.
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“Sometimes, you just need a little bit of luck; a big play, a charge-down in a quarterfinal from Cheslin Kobe and you win the game by a point,” he said.
“Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes not, and I know that’s not what people want to hear but I mean that is the reality.
“Sometimes you’re one foot away. Maybe a pass sticks and you score and you win and nobody will ask questions.
“But sometimes you knock the ball and it just didn’t go your way. You lose and everybody will ask questions.
“The thing is, in big games, it’s going to be that tight and you must try and play the big points well – if I can put it like that – and you must try and nail the big points.
“Hopefully I can add value to that, but there is no silver bullet.
“There’s no, ‘Listen guys, if you did this, x, y, and z, you will win big games’.
“You must be in the fight until the last end and then you hope you nail a big moment and you hope they don’t.”
Meanwhile, Nienaber also opened up on the discussions he had with his family which led him to join Leinster.
“I just felt I had lost a lot of time with my family.
“That’s why the decision was made in January/February.
“My wife said, ‘listen, I don’t think we can do another four years of this’. The kids said: ‘Dad, we need you at home’.”
Additional sources: Irish Independent & Irish Examiner
