Ex-Springboks boss reveals player exodus ‘helped’ South Africa win successive Rugby World Cups

Former Springboks head coach Jacques Nienaber believes that the loss of their playing talent overseas ultimately proved beneficial for the national team.

South Africa were forced to alter their eligibility laws a while back after their top players kept on departing for big pay packets in France, England and Japan.

That has obviously provided its challenges for the Springboks coaches, and also weakened their franchises, but Nienaber believes that it has aided the Boks in the long run.

They have gone on to win consecutive Rugby World Cups, while it has also enabled their youngsters, who ultimately replaced those experienced internationals, to progress quicker through the ranks.

Even split

“I don’t think we have the monetary strength to pay our players the value that they are valued at. If you look at the squad that we took, it’s about half and half,” Nienaber told The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast.

“About 15 or 16 players were plying their trade abroad and 15 or 16 plied their trade in South Africa.

“Those guys abroad, I don’t know what their salaries are, but if they were in South Africa there’s no way we would be able to pay them.

“I do think it’s good for us they go abroad, they play there and then you can still select them if they’re good enough.

“That really helped us win two World Cups. It works for us. If you think about the locks, Eben (Etzebeth) was with the Sharks but he was abroad in 2019, then you have Franco Mostert, who’s abroad, you have RG (Snyman) and Jean Kleyn, who’s abroad.

“If all of them stayed in South Africa, there wouldn’t have been the (Ruan) Nortje’s and the young guys coming through now because they would have been blocked by them. You get the new guys who are playing in the URC.

“It (playing abroad) broadens your guys’ exposure to top rugby, so it’s a good thing for us.”

Squad make-up

When players are featuring for different clubs around the world, it is important to get the culture right when they join back up with the Springboks.

Nienaber was on occasion criticised for omitting in-form individuals from his South Africa squads, but explained why they sometimes decided not to select the “better” player.

“The most important thing is to get the right people, not necessarily the best. When we do select the squad there’s probably players that are better than the ones we select in our squad, who are performing better, but the key thing is that they must be the right people for the environment,” he added.

“That’s why we sometimes get criticised selecting a squad; ‘yes this guy is on form and he’s far better than this guy.’

“You know what, the public are knowledgeable in South Africa, they are completely right, but sometimes that guy is not the right guy.”

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