Leinster look to Bok champs for winning edge
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Josh van der Flier says Leinster are drawing on the experience of two-time World Cup winners Jacques Nienaber and RG Snyman to help end a four-year trophy drought.
Leinster boast four European Cups and eight league titles yet, since their last PRO14 triumph in 2021, have fallen short in three consecutive Investec Champions Cup finals and exiting at the Vodacom URC semi-final stage three times.
Now, with former Springbok boss Nienaber in the coaches' box and Bok giant Snyman adding his physicality to the pack, Van der Flier hopes Leo Cullen's charges have the ingredients to go all the way this season.
"He's [Nienaber] got a lot of insights into how he's managed to get the best out of the players who have played with him," the Ireland flanker said in a wide-ranging interview with Planet Rugby.
"He's obviously worked with some of the best players in the world, and, as a double World Cup winner, you know what he teaches works."
The 2022 World Player of the Year has built his career on relentless work ethic and defensive excellence, two qualities Nienaber has long instilled in his teams. He helped steer South Africa to back-to-back World Cup titles, and Van der Flier has already seen his impact at Leinster.
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"From a non-technical point of view, he's a very good motivator. He's great at getting you in the right frame of mind and, really importantly, he expects you to work as a teammate to others, something key within the Springboks as we saw in 2023," he said.
"From a technical point of view, he adds a huge amount in terms of individual things in defence and tackling, but his real USP is within the team environment."
Leinster sit top of the URC and host Harlequins in the Champions Cup round of 16 on Saturday. Van der Flier knows the challenge ahead but trusts in their approach.
"It's obviously been a tricky, tricky few years for us, and we're painfully aware of not having succeeded in bringing trophies home," he said.
"We have Jacques and RG Snyman to bring their huge knowledge now. They've obviously both won the World Cup, and Jordie Barrett's had a lot of success with New Zealand over a long period of time as well, so there's a lot of winning experience we can draw on within the group."
"We've been pretty consistent over the last few years, and it's just been those last games where we've faltered. In some of them, it could easily have gone the other way, and we could be talking about having one or two of the cups in the trophy cupboard."
Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images
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