Nienaber not letting big win get to Boks’ heads

Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber is not letting their record 52-16 win over Wales at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday get to the players’ heads as he readily admitted after the game that they did not face a full strength team.

Wales named a host of fringe players in their match 23, which ended up being a very young and inexperienced side, which was then deservedly put to the sword by the rampant Boks.

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It was similar to what the Boks did in Bloemfontein last year when they named largely fringe side, which led to Wales clinching their first ever win on South African soil, albeit by the smallest of margins with the score ending 13-12.

“I think it’s fair to say and this is not being disrespectful to Wales, but they could have picked a more experienced side,” explained Nienaber.

“Similar to how we did against Wales in Bloemfontein where we made 18 changes, they made quite a few changes this week to see who of their fringe players can go to the World Cup.”

Unknown factor

However, due to the Boks having not faced many of these players on the international stage before, that brought an element of unknown that helped the home side put up a good fight over the first quarter of the match.

 Although the visitors scored first in the fourth minute through hooker Malcolm Marx, they trailed 6-5 by the 20^th minute and held a slender 12-9 lead after 24 minutes.

The inexperience of the Welsh side then came heavily to the fore as they conceded a dubious penalty try due to a silly slap of the ball from wing Rio Dyer, followed by a comical free score handed to centre Jesse Kriel after massive defensive pressure on their own line, led to a 24-9 halftime score.

The second half was then all the Boks as they powered into a 52-9 lead before the Welsh were rewarded for not giving up with the final try of the match in the 72^nd minute.

“From our side we knew we were coming up against a team of desperate young guys trying to prove themselves and that’s what we got,” said Nienaber.

“If you look at the first 20 or 30 minutes it was really a grind and we had to be clinical in our approach to start wearing them down. That’s what we wanted and expected, and because we didn’t know them so well we had to find solutions in the game.

“I thought they had a good kicking game in the first half because we didn’t know their nine or wingers well, so we had to find solutions during the game and I thought that was great preparation for us.”