Why Jacques Nienaber believes Lions are ‘force to be reckoned with’ and ‘one of the big off-field goals’ for Leinster in South Africa
The Lions in action in August versus the All Blacks and, inset, Leinster senior coach Jacques Nienaber
Former Springboks boss Jacques Nienaber has described the Lions as a force to be reckoned with ahead of the new United Rugby Championship (URC) season.
The 2023 Rugby World Cup-winning head coach is back on South African soil this week with defending champions Leinster set to open their title defence against the Lions at Ellis Park, a round one fixture that will be followed by an October 3 assignment at the Sharks in Durban.
South Africa hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for the reigning back-to-back champions from Ireland. They have played 11 matches there since the league became the URC and have lost nine, only winning 39-36 at the Lions in April 2023 and beating the Sharks 10-7 in March 2025.
Their most recent visit in September 2025 heralded a 0-35 hammering at the Stormers and a 31-39 loss at the Bulls.
Leinster, of course, redressed that balance by going on to successfully retain their URC title, defeating the Lions twice in Dublin last May before completing their success with home wins over the Stormers and the Bulls.
“Everybody would say that…”
Ivan van Rooyen’s side were beaten 31-7 and 59-10 at Aviva Stadium, exiting at the quarter-final stage of the competition, but they did enough over the course of the season to have Nienaber on red alert ahead of this Saturday’s rematch in Johannesburg.
“The Lions are a good team, and everybody would say that,” he reckoned, sizing up an opposition that won eight of its nine home matches last season, the last six on the bounce, to secure a first-time qualification for the title-deciding play-offs.
“If you statistically look at them, especially from an attacking point of view, and you look at last season, they were the team that had the most offloads; they scored the most tries in the competition; they won the South African Conference out of the South African teams.
“And South African teams in general are doing pretty well in the URC. I mean, they have been in the last five grand finals; there’s been a South African team in the final every year. It’s a tough task to come to South Africa and the Lions as well.
“It’s going to be a nice challenge for us, and it’s one that we definitely are looking forward to. But they are a great outfit, the Lions; they’re a very proud team and they are a force to be reckoned with, as they showed when they played against the All Blacks (the tourists needed a late score to win 41-35 in August).
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“Ellis Park is a ground that they really put their heart and their soul into defending, so it will be a nice challenge for us.”
Leinster paid the price for travelling to South Africa last September with a squad that was short the entourage of players that Andy Farrell had chosen for the British and Irish Lions tour.
However, they have headed south on this occasion with plenty of Ireland front-liners in their squad of 41 and this better mix of experience and youth has enthused Nienaber. “It’s obviously 41 players over here; everybody can make the calculations that not everybody will play on tour, but we will see how things go out at the back end of the week in terms of the team selection that’s due for Thursday.
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“But it’s nice having a big squad here, having the opportunity to work with them. And it’s always nice to tour. A tour is always like an opportunity for people to bond and to learn from each other, and that’s one of the big off-field goals for us is to embed what Leinster is and what Leinster is about touring, what’s the touring side of a Leinster team and getting that ingrained in like the younger guys.
“There’s a good mix. You always get the excitement of the youth travelling and then you’ve got the experienced on the other side, so it’s a nice blend between a very experienced group and a very energetic, young, inexperienced group which is nice to work with.
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“Pre-season, if you ask that question to any team in the URC, everybody would say listen, they are in a better spot than what they were last year, so we working as hard as we can,” he added.
“We know it’s extremely tough competition to be part of, but the pre-season we’re building slowly but surely but it’s been good and the guys are working really, really hard. We’re just excited that the pre-season has now come to an end and it’s game weeks now.
“Where we finished, we’re proud as a club of the achievement that we got last year. I mean, getting to two finals and then ultimately getting over the line in one of them, it’s just a testament to how tight that group was.
“So for us it’s basically starting again. It’s a new group, it’s a new year, new season, so building connections again and it’s lovely to have the lads here with us in South Africa.
“That’s the beauty of this group; there are nine academy players in South Africa and what an opportunity for them to learn from the older, more experienced players that are also on tour.
“That’s always a nice connection piece. There are players that have been very experienced in travelling, and now you have nine academy lads that can rub shoulders with them and learn how to do things. From that point of view, they are settling in nicely and everybody is contributing and building connections as much as possible.”
