First published by the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has had a frustrating year. The world champions were sidelined by Covid-19 and unable to play, but Nienaber is upbeat with a massive 2021 season looming. There is a very real chance the Springboks will go into next July’s Test series against the British & Irish Lions having not played a Test in 20 months. There is a chance Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber’s first Test in charge will be against the Lions. He’s unfazed.

It’s the biggest rugby event outside a World Cup, given the Lions only tour every four years and come to South Africa every 12 years. In an ideal world the Boks would have played 12 Tests after winning Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2019, before the first Test against the Lions on 24 July, 2021.

But if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that we don’t live in anything close to an ideal world. So, it’s probably fortunate that Nienaber is steering the Boks. He appears to handle every challenge with clarity, humour and with eyes only on the future.

“If that’s the scenario, we wouldn’t have another choice, so we would have to get on with it,” Nienaber told DM168.

“If those are the cards I’m dealt, it doesn’t help wasting energy thinking about how unfair it is. That’s the reality I might have to deal with so the best thing is to find ways to make it work.

“I think that mindset comes from my physio background. If you treat a player and he comes back a week later with the same pulled hamstring, you don’t have time to think about what could have been done differently. You just have to get on to solving the new problem.

“In this business you have to be able to live in the present and to an extent in the future. You cannot live in the past because you will expend too much energy worrying about things that will have no influence on the future.

“If you asked me in January when I was appointed Bok coach, would I have liked this year to pan out as it did, obviously my answer would have been ‘no’. But it did … and I have spent no time worrying about things I can’t control. I just keep looking forward and try to solve problems and creatively come up with plans to make the best of it.”

Putting South Africa first

Part of those plans involve trying to find opponents for preparation Tests before the Lions series. It’s something Nienaber has left to director of rugby Rassie Erasmus and his team.

Erasmus, who coached the Boks to RWC 2019 glory, is similar to Nienaber: they both enjoy creative problem solving and have faced the challenges Covid-19 has presented pragmatically.

The motto of the 2019 Boks was: “Let the main thing, stay the main thing.” It meant the main thing was winning rugby matches and titles, whatever happened in tandem with that was a bonus. As long as players and coaches stayed focused on what they could control, they had done their job.

It’s the same approach that was taken in the decision for the Boks to stay out of the Rugby Championships this year. It led to some unhappiness from their southern hemisphere partners New Zealand, Australia and Argentina. But it was something the Boks could control and they were not bullied into a bad choice.

The decision, which was made in the interests of player welfare following a long and restrictive lockdown and almost no rugby, came under further scrutiny when Argentina surprisingly beat New Zealand in their opening fixture of the 2020 Tri-Nations.

Fingers were pointed at South Africa for not at least making the effort to go, but Nienaber is unmoved by that criticism.

“Would we be able to perform and would it be safe for our players coming out of a long lockdown? That’s what we asked ourselves,” Nienaber said.

“To me, it was never about performance. It never crossed my mind that the Springboks were not capable of winning if we went to the tournament. I never considered that we might be smashed when I evaluated the situation based on performance alone. But player safety was a huge concern.

“If we had gone and played Rugby Championship, we would have only finished our schedule on 12 December. We would’ve had to play six Tests in five weeks. Remember Argentina only played four Tests,” he said.

“When you consider, after the All Blacks lost to Argentina, that their coach Ian Foster mentioned that it was his team’s fifth match in six weeks as one of the factors behind the defeat, you start to see the problem we faced. We had to play six Tests in five weeks. It wouldn’t have been safe for the players. Our players would have come back and after quarantine and gone straight into a summer Currie Cup and then into the next thing. Each country had its own obstacles and agendas and we had to do what was best for our players.”

RWC 2023 draw

Last Monday, World Rugby hosted the draw for RWC 2023 in France. The Boks were drawn alongside Ireland and Scotland with the identity of the other two teams in their Pool to be decided in a qualifying process.

It was ludicrously early to stage a draw for a tournament three years away in a sport where a lot changes, quickly. Although Nienaber trotted out some necessary sound bites about the future opponents, in reality RWC 2023 is not even on his radar.

“The World Cup draw makes no difference to me at this stage. The time I spent thinking about it was probably three minutes,” Nienaber said. “I’m sure the people [who] organised the draw and decided to have it three years in advance for whatever reason, gave it a lot more thought.

“They probably have logistics to cover and they need three years to get ready. I will worry about World Cup opponents when the time is right.

“People have asked me if I’m concerned who we have drawn … and I’m honestly not concerned. The draw is something that was out of our control as a team, and we will play who we are going to play, so we will deal with those plans when we have to.”

There it is again. Only spending energy on what he can control. DM168

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