Creativity a top priority for Springbok boss

Springbok Head Coach Jacques Nienaber has urged his charges to avoid complacency by continuing to think outside the box. 

South Africa’s next assignment sees them tackle Wales in a three-match series coming up in July and Nienaber is hoping that the spirit of innovation will be front and centre in the minds of his players. 

“The one thing I can tell you, is that if you want disaster you must fail to improvise, to build and improve,” Nienaber said. 

“The other teams are chasing, they are improving and they are looking to improvise. 

“The big challenge for us is that we still stay creative, so we don’t get too arrogant and say, ‘listen we know how to win test matches, we know how to win a World Cup, we know how to end number one in the world after a year’. 

“I think that is an arrogant way of looking at it, and that will be our challenge, that we don’t become arrogant like that and do stay creative. 

While picking up several positives from the 2021 season, Nienaber has not lost sight of the fact that, statistically, it was not where the Boks wanted to be. 

“Obviously there are some things that we do that are working for us,” he said. 

“I think we had a fairly average season, if you look percentages of games won. I do think if you look at the conditions under which we pulled off some victories. 

“If you look at the British & Irish Lions series, the amount of preparation that we had going into that series, to pull off a victory there, I think the players performed exceptionally well. 

“If you look at that victory we had against New Zealand, after 16 weeks away from our families in bio-secure bubbles, the massive mental strain on the team, to pull off a victory off the back of that environment for so long, was exceptional. 

“It was an unbelievable push by the players to get that. 

“Similar teams that are in the Southern Hemisphere, New Zealand and Australia at the back end of year tour where they were now 12 weeks, 14 weeks in bio-secure bubbles. 

“It’s tough to stay positive, keep on pushing, you are not allowed to go out. 

“In that sense, we did some things well but I think we will shoot ourselves in the foot if we stay arrogant and think we have all the answers and don’t innovate.”