Leinster Rugby players told Jacques Nienaber to simplify his communication with them
Leinster's senior coach Jacques Nienaber is delighted that there is that transparency between him and the players as he explains his need to understand their mindset
Jacques Nienaber admits he has had to change his approach in dealing with Leinster's players.
Last weekend, new Leinster captain Caelan Doris played an active role in the coaches box alongside Nienaber and Leo Cullen.
Jamison Gibson-Park has acted as a water-carrier in the past - as has Nienaber, for South Africa and for Leinster, using the position to pass on messages but also to closely observe his players.
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And those players have told him that he had to simplify his message to all them to understand. "When we say we give a message, it will be a suggestion - 'this is a suggestion, this is what we're feeling', said the World Cup winning senior coach.
"Obviously we’re not playing the game. We don’t see it the way they see it. So this is a suggestion and then it’s up to them to take it or don’t take it.
"I would probably say, even from their point of view, obviously English is not my first language so sometimes my messages can be bulky. I don’t get to the point, I think my media is the same!
"Because it’s not my first language, so you struggle to get to the point. So they’ve given me, ‘Listen, you need to shorten it up. Think what you want to say, shorten your message, it’s too clunky’. Which is brilliant and that’s the transparency you want in a team. It should be transparent like that, I love it like that.”
Nienaber was approached by EPCR officials when he came down to the sideline for the second half of last season's Champions Cup final loss to Toulouse.
He was allowed to continue to impart the Leinster message from that vantage point because he is not the head coach. "I think it's an improvement of me, improvement of them, improvement of them understanding me," he added. "Obviously not being the head coach, I’ve got a licence to go and become a water carrier.
"I’ve done it in the warm-up games, so maybe at half-time I’ll change and go down. I think it’s always a good thing, when you’re carrying water, you’ve got a much better understanding of what they are feeling.
"Standing there in a huddle, you can see are they blowing? Are there solutions, are there emotions? So you can get an emotional connection. When you see in the box, there's not an emotional connection and it's ‘are they confident, are they frustrated, are they angry?’
"That’s the beauty of it if you are closer to the team. You can feel the emotion of where the team is currently at from a mindset point of view. Then hopefully you can add to that.
"If there’s frustration, you can try and get them not to be frustrated. Or if there is anger, you can make a joke and laugh, and remember to enjoy it. It’s because sometimes in a game, you go through disappointment, emotion, confidence, lack of confidence.
"Fear of making errors, fear of ‘please don’t let the ball come to me’. It’s nice to manage that and when I was a physio, that was always the beauty when I was roaming. It’s nice to be that close to the field.”
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