Cullen's verdict regarding Nienaber backlash
SPOTLIGHT: Leinster head coach Leo Cullen gave his honest assessment regarding the backlash former Bok coach Jacques Nienaber endured recently.
Nienaber has been accused during his tenure of affecting Irish Rugby and Leinster more specifically as a team that lost their attacking prowess under the former World Cup-winning coach’s structures.
*Also read: EXCLUSIVE: Former Irish hooker’s take on Leinster and Jacques Nienaber
However, Cullen came out in defence of Nienaber’s contribution towards the Irish powerhouse since joining in late 2023.
“I’m very hopeful anyway, yeah,” Cullen said when asked if Nienaber will be part of the Leinster coaching ticket next season.
“Listen, Jacques is brilliant. I have to say I’ve really enjoyed working with Jacques and I think we’ve a great group of coaches here.
“I think we’ve got a great group of staff as well, so there are so many great people in the building here, and it’s a very enjoyable place to work, and I wouldn’t even call it work, to be honest.
“It’s a very enjoyable place to turn up and coach and prepare a great group of players.
“I think Jacques is brilliant, and we’re very lucky to have him in terms of the experience that he has, top end of the game.
“It speaks for itself as a double World Cup winner and all the different things that I would research in terms of bringing Jacques here in the first place.
“Everything checks out, he’s a brilliant person, a brilliant individual to work with, and yes, that is very much the plan, for sure [for him to stay].”
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Nienaber expressed his frustrations and doubts regarding his future at the Irish province in a recent interview.
“If, like he said, I’m ‘a devil’…So if it’s according to him, probably not,” Nienaber snapped back (quotes sourced from Raidió Teilifís Éireann).
He was referring to Ruaidhri O’Connor of the Irish Independent, who wrote that Leinster and Ireland had “made a deal with the devil” when they brought Nienaber in after the 2023 World Cup.
“Let me put it to you this way. Who fires you? Do you know who fires you? The public, the media, they fire you,” Nienaber added.
“Not the CEO, not Shane [Nolan, Leinster CEO]. He doesn’t fire me, but you guys fire us, fire all coaches, because the pressure builds up and builds up, and the fans then build the pressure on them, and then they [the board] just ask this and say, ‘listen lads, I think we must part ways’.
“When I say you guys, I’m saying the media. There’s a misconception that people get fired by the CEOs. That is because of pressure put on CEOs by the boards, by people listening.
“Let’s say the board member has dinner with his mates and his friends, and they go, ‘Sheesh, that Nienaber, you signed a deal with the devil, man’. I’m quoting Ruadhri there: ‘You signed a deal with the devil, you need to get rid of that devil, he’s killing Irish rugby’. That is how you get fired.
“So, your question is, listen, am I going to be here? I hope so, OK. Currently, I’m not sure, to be honest.”
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Leinster will face Nienaber’s former team, the Stormers, in the second United Rugby Championship semifinal this weekend.
With additional reporting by: RTÉ
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