South African rugby knows how to produce coaches and props.
In Dublin and Bordeaux, two of South Africa’s best coaches will lead teams in the Champions Cup semifinals, while Springboks World Cup-winning prop Thomas du Toit headlines the trio of South African props in action in Bordeaux.
Jacques Nienaber, head coach and assistant of the World Cup-winning Springboks in 2023 and 2019, respectively, wore Leinster colours at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday.
Nienaber is in his third year at Leinster and Johann van Graan is in his fourth year at Bath, having rebuilt and resurrected the club from basement dwellers in the English Premiership to domestic champions and EPCR Challenge Cup champions last season.
Van Graan was Heyneke Meyer’s Springboks assistant coach between 2012 and 2015 and won a bronze medal at the 2015 World Cup in England.
Van Graan and Nienaber know how to win, fix teams and improve them.Both also coached at Ireland’s Munster and are both in the elite global coaching category and hugely respected in the game.
Nienaber and Van Graan love a challenge, which is evident in the assignments they have undertaken in their careers
Both consistently speak about learning as much as they teach, and both have thrived in foreign environments, working with players from different cultures and adapting to life outside of South Africa.
Nienaber and Van Graan love a challenge, which is evident in the assignments they have undertaken in their careers.
Nienaber and Rassie Erasmus combined to restore respect to the Stormers in the mid-2000s.
They then relocated to Munster to recapture past glories of a struggling traditional club power, and their biggest victory was transforming the Boks into back-to-back World Cup winners. When they took over in 2018, the current world champions and No 1 team were ranked seventh in the world.
Van Graan was their recommended successor at Munster but his biggest achievement has been making Bath the team they were 30 years ago, in European and English club standing.
Both are a credit to South African rugby.
Du Toit, who returns to the Sharks in South Africa, has been a sensation at Bath. He has a try-scoring return equal to that of a winger, and his scrumming is among the best in the game. He’s a rare frontranker jewel who can start a Test for the Springboks at loosehead or tighthead.
Francois van Wyk, another South African, is among the prop cavalry for Bath, and Carlu Sadie starts for Bordeaux on Monday. Sadie was included in Erasmus’s Springboks alignment camp this year.
Saturday’s semifinal in Dublin between Leinster and Toulon featured 36 Test players, and Monday’s semifinal in Bordeaux will have 20-plus Test players in action
Bordeaux also have former Springboks Heinie Adams and Shaun Sowerby on their coaching staff.
Adams played scrumhalf for the Boks and 60 matches for Bordeaux, while Sowerby played 50 matches at No 8 for Stade Francais, 113 for Toulouse, and finished his playing career at Grenoble. Both have spent the past two decades in France.
David Ribbans, born and raised in the Western Cape, played lock for Toulon on Saturday. Ribbans has played 11 Tests for England.
The South African presence, as always, is strong in the Champions Cup among English, Irish and French teams. In the competition’s 31-year history, as many South Africans have won the coveted star and former Bulls and Springbok icons Bakkies Botha (lock) and Bryan Habana (wing) were included in a Fans’ Greatest Champions Cup XV of all time.
Bordeaux are the defending champions, and, in a rare European match-up, last season’s two EPCR competition champions meet to determine who plays in this season’s elite final.
Bordeaux’s consistency has been its strength in the past few seasons, in results and also selection. The core of the match 23 has played throughout the tournament, and 17 of the 23 who beat the Bulls 46-33 in the opening round of this season’s title defence will play against Bath on Monday.
Bath also have 16 survivors from last season’s 23 that beat Lyon in the EPCR final.
Saturday’s semifinal in Dublin between Leinster and Toulon featured 36 Test players, and Monday’s semifinal in Bordeaux will have 20-plus Test players in action.
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