Nienaber: Leinster haven’t been neglecting attack

Jacques Nienaber says Leinster are not focusing on defence at the expense of their attack since his arrival at the province in December.

The former South Africa head coach arrived at the province late last year with a reputation as a defence specialist after helping the Springboks to back-to-back World Cup titles in 2019 and 2023.

The province have noticeably shifted to a more aggressive defensive line in the months since his arrival, as they look to implement his gameplan, which has worked to great effect at times this season.

The province held Toulouse try-less until extra-time in Saturday’s Investec Champions Cup final defeat, and limited the French side to very few try-scoring opportunities, but were left to rue a profligate attack, which returned just 16 points from 17 entries to the Toulouse 22.

Having had a reputation for being one of the most exciting attacking sides in Europe for the last number of seasons, Leinster’s attacking gameplan had been questioned even prior to Saturday’s defeat, with suggestions that the new defensive strategy was resulting in less time devoted to their attacking game on the training pitch.

However, Nienaber says he hasn’t made any changes to the flow of how the province were training before his arrival in December.

“When I got here, I thought there was two ways of doing things,” the senior coach (below) told RTÉ Sport.

“You can come in and say, ‘I prefer the week to flow like this, because it worked when I was with the Springboks, this is how the week-flow went, in terms of sessions, kicking game, defence, attack’.

“Or, I just slot in with how the flow went within Leinster. I chose to go that route, because I always knew how it worked with the Boks and previous teams I was involved in, but I thought to change it mid-season, for me, for the whole team to change for one guy coming in, it didn’t make sense.

“Literally, I came into the workflow of the week, and the lads would just say, ‘This is normally where we have a block for defence, and the defence that we addressed here was defence from scrums, or defence from lineouts, or defence from kick-chase, or general defence’.

“The lads literally just gave me slots of where they would normally address defence. I just went into that. I just slotted in with the programme, as it was.”

Leinster have a short turnaround this week, as they look to get their season back on track, welcoming Connacht to the RDS on Friday night in their final regular-season game of the BKT United Rugby Championship.

The province are guaranteed a home quarter-final, but will be relying on results elsewhere in order to break into the top two, following their loss to Ulster last time out.

Garry Ringrose remains a doubt for the Interpro, as he continues to build back up from a shoulder injury, while Jason Jenkins has been ruled out with a knee injury, which he suffered in Saturday’s defeat.

The province will also be without Hugo Keenan for at least the next two matches, after the full-back linked up with the Ireland Sevens side ahead of the final leg of their World SVNS Series in Madrid.

Keenan (above) will be with the Sevens squad for the next two weeks as they continue their preparations for the Olympic Games in Paris, with Nienaber unable to confirm whether or not the 27-year-old would be returning to the province for a potential URC semi-final or final, should they progress.

The Leinster senior coach was critical of his side’s breakdown work, and their error-count in Saturday’s defeat to Toulouse, but wouldn’t be drawn on whether or not they should have taken more kicks at goal from penalties, rather than going to the corner in search of tries.

While Ross Byrne and Ciarán Frawley combined for 15 points off the tee, they did take the aggressive approach on several penalties, particularly in the first quarter of the game, only to see their maul-attack halted by Ugo Mola’s side.

And Nienaber said he didn’t want their review of the game to be dictated by hindsight.

“That is a decision that they make on the field, and you have to trust them with it,” he added.

“On that, I think in hindsight, it always makes perfect science.

“You now the outcome, you know the decisions we took didn’t result in points, so obviously now in hindsight you look, ‘Yeah, listen, it didn’t work so it was the wrong decision’.

“I can also go back and say I remember reading two years ago when Leinster played in the final against La Rochelle and we took the kickable penalties, and then ended up losing. The team was criticised for not being more adventurous. Again, in hindsight, because you lost the game, ‘It was the wrong decision to take points, you should have been more aggressive’. You don’t know that.

“If we did take the kicks for poles and missed it, would it then be, ‘Listen you should have gone for touch?’.

“At the end of the day, it boils down to the players must make a decision on the pitch. If they score a try from that, it was the right decision. It’s pretty much outcome-based, if I can put it like that.”

Watch Munster v Ulster in the URC on Saturday from 5pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1