Jacques Nienaber: Leinster must always cherish victories because they are not a given, look at Man City
Leinster During Nienaber Pic: Elliott Cherish Victories: jacques Training ©inpho/nick
While he admitted their level of performance didn’t reach the standard they have set for themselves, Leinster senior coach Jacques Nienaber has insisted the province were ultimately satisfied to come away with a 15-7 win over Clermont at the Aviva Stadium last Saturday.
Thanks to opening half tries from Garry Ringrose and Jordie Barrett, Leinster brought a five-point cushion into the interval of their European Champions Cup Pool Two clash with the Top 14 outfit in Irish Rugby HQ.
Yet a 48th minute penalty from Sam Prendergast was the only score the hosts mustered after the restart with a number of line-out issues making it difficult for them to create sustained attacking momentum.
“You must always cherish victories because there will come a time when you don't get them. Then you kind of wish that you celebrated them more when you did get them.
"If you look at Man City and where they are now, things can change in a heartbeat so you must always cherish victories because they are not a given in pro sport,” Nienaber explained at a Leinster media briefing in UCD yesterday.
“Putting that aside, the disappointment is not that we won. The disappointment is if we look at our performance measured against the standard that we set ourselves. I don't think that was on par and that's why we're disappointed in our performance. But we're very happy with the win and you have to celebrate the win.”
However, during a post-match press conference that was held in the wake of Leinster’s showdown with Clermont in the Aviva, the province’s head coach Leo Cullen said ‘we need to look at ourselves as coaches and go away and be very self-reflecting in terms of messaging and all the rest’.
Although he stressed that he didn’t want to say what Cullen thinks, Nienaber acknowledged there is always more that coaches can do to get the very best out of the players at their disposal.
“I think as a leadership, when you don’t get a performance like that, you must always start with yourself. That’s how my brain works.
"Knowing these coaches, I think the majority of us will always go ‘You must look at the leadership first and say, listen, where did we go wrong? What did we do, or didn’t do, during the week that we could have done better?' and then you build on to that,” Nienaber added.
“I think it’s easy just to go ‘listen, this is what was wrong on the pitch.’ I think the 80 minutes you see on Saturday is but a small chunk of the preparation and the work that goes into getting a performance.
"You have to look at the whole build-up and see where we could have done better.”