Bernard Jackman: Jacques Nienaber was ‘way more coherent’ than Leo Cullen and ex-Springboks boss was ‘100 per cent right’
Leinster coaches Leo Cullen and Jacques Nienaber, and respected pundit Bernard Jackman.
Former Ireland and Leinster hooker Bernard Jackman ‘couldn’t argue’ with the points Jacques Nienaber made during his dramatic press conference earlier in the week.
The former Springboks boss became the second big-hitter from the province after Leo Cullen to vent his anger.
Nienaber stated that he didn’t feel ‘valued’ at the Irish giants and defended his methods, while hitting out at his portrayal in the media.
Nienaber ‘had his facts’
“I thought it was a different context than Leo’s one, it was way more coherent. He had his facts, he argued his point, he explained pretty well,” Jackman said on the RTE Rugby podcast.
The former Springboks head coach also had a back-and-forth with a journalist, but Jackman insisted that it did not overstep the mark.
“I thought it was all logical, respectful and made his points. I don’t argue with any of the points; the fans do get a coach sacked. The fans do get you sacked; he’s 100 per cent right there.
“The fact that only 9,000 people were there on Saturday is worrying.”
Nienaber’s dissatisfaction with the journalist centred around a piece written in January 2025 where he opined that Leinster had done a “deal with the devil” by bringing the former Springboks head coach to Dublin, but Jackman had a theory about the South African’s frustration.
“The only thing I wonder is a friend of mine, who understands South Africans very well, thought maybe the line, ‘make a deal with the devil’, from a religious point of view, that is something that could stir it up more for South Africans,” the ex-front-rower said.
“We just see it as a throwaway remark – the fact he remembered that and quoted that shows that has annoyed him for a long time and sat on it.
“I thought it was a fascinating press conference.”
Jackman only really took issue with one thing as the respected pundit doesn’t believe that the media would ultimately impact his position.
“Now, he’s saying the media tell the fans and the fans then get you sacked, I don’t think that’s true,” he said.
“The media, I would like to hope, is looking with their own eyes and writing pieces or narratives around what they see.”
Nienaber’s role and responsibility
While it was at times a tense press conference, Nienaber also went into plenty of detail, talking about how he views the defence and the roles and responsibilities of the coaching team.
“I especially thought it was really interesting around his actual role as senior coach and I thought he explained that in real detail,” Jackman added.
“Basically, what he said was, he’s given the times for the week in terms of how much time on feet on a Monday, how much time on the feet on a Wednesday…
“He allocates the time, so Robin McBryde gets, whatever, half-an-hour to do set-piece, Tyler Bleyendaal a certain amount of time for attack, and then obviously he does the defence.
“What he did say, which I thought was really interesting, was he doesn’t tell Robin McBryde how to win lineout ball, he doesn’t tell Tyler Bleyendaal how to attack. The reality is that would fit in with the senior coach.
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“Now the head coach, that is their job. Their job is to make sure how they defend a lineout is aligned to how they defend in general and how they win lineouts and scrums is aligned to how they want to attack.
“The balance between possession and territory, and where you’re going to kick and how often you’re going to kick.
“Somebody needs to co-ordinate that and I felt from what I listened to was that he doesn’t co-ordinate it all in terms of how it all joins up.
“That’s certainly how I read it, that he co-ordinated the logistics of how it plays out, but he isn’t responsible for the overall game plan per se, which makes sense how it looks on the pitch.”
READ MORE: Opinion: Jacques Nienaber should walk if he truly believes bombshell claim
