Leinster players call out Nienaber over 'clunky' messages

SPOTLIGHT: Jacques Nienaber has revealed that he had to work on his communication with Leinster’s players.

Nienaber is in his second season as the senior coach with the Irish province. He joined the province after he guided the Boks to World Cup glory in France last year.

For last weekend’s United Rugby Championship clash against the Dragons, Nienaber was in the coaches’ box with head coach Leo Cullen and they were joined by new captain Caelan Doris in a move to improve communication between coaches and players.

Nienaber has also been used as a water carrier in the past to relay messages to the team, but last week scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park was used in that role.

The former Springbok coach admitted that he was asked to simplify his communication with the players.

“When we say we give a message, it will be a suggestion – ‘this is a suggestion, this is what we’re feeling’,” Nienaber told Irish media this week.

“Obviously, we [coaches] are not playing the game.

“We don’t see it the way they see it. So, this is a suggestion and then it’s up to them to take it or don’t take it.

“I would probably say, even from their point of view, obviously English is not my first language so sometimes my messages can be bulky.

“I don’t get to the point; I think my media is the same!”

Nienaber added: “It’s not my first language, so you struggle to get to the point.

“So, they’ve said to me, ‘Listen, you need to shorten it up. Think what you want to say, shorten your message, it’s too clunky’.

“It’s brilliant and that’s the transparency you want in a team. It should be transparent like that; I love it like that.”

Nienaber also hinted that he may return to that waterboy role in the near future.

In last year’s Champions Cup Final against Toulouse, he made his way down to the sidelines for the second half and he was eventually approached by EPCR officials.

However, he was allowed to continue in the role as he is not the head coach of the team.

“I think it’s an improvement of me, improvement of them, improvement of them understanding me,” he added. “Obviously, not being the head coach, I’ve got a licence to go and become a water carrier.

“I’ve done it in the warm-up games, so maybe at half-time I’ll change and go down. I think it’s always a good thing when you’re carrying water, you’ve got a much better understanding of what they are feeling.

“Standing there in a huddle, you can see are they blowing? Are there solutions, are there emotions? So, you can get an emotional connection. When you see in the box, there’s not an emotional connection and it’s ‘Are they confident, are they frustrated, are they angry?’.

“That’s the beauty of it if you are closer to the team. You can feel the emotion of where the team is currently at from a mindset point of view. Then hopefully you can add to that.

“If there’s frustration, you can try and get them not to be frustrated. Or if there is anger, you can make a joke and laugh and remember to enjoy it.

“It’s because sometimes in a game, you go through disappointment, emotion, confidence, lack of confidence.

“Fear of making errors, fear of ‘please don’t let the ball come to me’. It’s nice to manage that and when I was a physio, that was always the beauty when I was roaming. It’s nice to be that close to the field.”

Sources: Irish Mirror and The Irish Sun