‘Boks will be even stronger’
MONGALO: NIENABER’S DEFENSIVE PROWESS IS A MASSIVE ADVANTAGE
Defence coach out to make Jake White’s Bulls a force again.
New Bulls defence guru Joey Mongalo credits Jacques Nienaber and John McFarland in helping shape his coaching style. He believes the Springboks will be even stronger with Nienaber now operating as head coach.
The Bulls under Jake White are looking to revisit their glory years of the late 2000s.
Nienaber may not have followed a conventional path to the Springbok coaching job, but his background as one of the world’s most respected defence coaches leaves the national side in a uniquely strong position moving forward.
That is the view of Joey Mongalo, who is set to join the Bulls as White’s defensive coach after nearly a decade at the Lions.
While Mongalo is just 35 and admits he has much to still learn, Nienaber has completed a development that has seen him and Rassie Erasmus build a reputation as one of the most respected coaching duos in world rugby.
While they are in very different places in their careers presently, Mongalo and Nienaber do have something in common in they both took the road less travelled to enter the coaching world.
Nienaber started out as a physiotherapist at the Free State Cheetahs over two decades ago before making the move into strength and conditioning and then, eventually, specialising in defence.
Mongalo, meanwhile, started out as a team manager for the Golden Lions U-19 side and was pushed into the world of defensive coaching by Hans Coetzee, the coach of the junior Lions at the time.
“I’ve got a world of respect for Jacques. If people knew how much work that guy puts into his preparation … it’s scary,” Mongalo said.
“I’m still challenged to get to that level of preparation. When defence coaching was really in its infancy, him and John McFarland were the two guys I really looked up to in South African rugby.
“As I started coaching myself, I watched Jacque’s progress at the Stormers and his move to Munster with Rassie.”
Mongalo believes that having a defence coach operating as a head coach will only strengthen the Boks, while he also pointed to Nienaber’s unique use of his physiotherapy credentials over the years.
“I think it’s quite a powerful place for a head coach to be a defence coach. Defence is an aspect of the game where you can really tap into the psyche of the team, so if you’re the head coach and you get to work in that space, I think the Springboks will be even better.”