The World Cup-winning Springboks have no shortage of admirers and Scott Penny is one of them.
The 24-year-old Leinster back row, who captained the side in their opening BKT URC game against Glasgow, now gets to work under Jacques Nienaber after the former South Africa head coach arrived in Ireland over the weekend.
The new 'senior coach' quickly got to work and ran the rule over his new side at training in the squad's UCD base yesterday.
"He's introduced himself and he’s had chats with loads of people," Penny said.
"He was out on the pitch for the first time and you can already see him stamping his mark.
"He was pretty successful with South Africa and they’d obviously be a team that put a lot of pressure on the breakdown.
"I’m hoping I can learn some stuff from him as regards to defensive breakdowns and also learning how they have made their defence so impressive over the last few years. It’ll be pretty good."
Leo Cullen's side lost the last two Champions Cup finals, and the 2021 semi-final, to La Rochelle, ultimately outmuscled when push came to shove.
Asked what one Springboks trait, among many, stood out for him, he replied: "I think it’s their physicality.
"They’re big behemoths of men, but I think you can see in defence that they show that physicality.
"Having size helps, but you can see with their line speed and how aggressive they are in the contact and at the breakdown. It makes them a real force to be reckoned with."
"Our defence has been decent this season and again our defensive breakdown has been pretty good this season, we had a fair few turnovers in slowing teams down.
"I think it’s probably the main area we can put a lot of focus on. It’s obviously great to have Jacques, who can help to orchestrate that."
Nienaber, alongside Rassie Erasmus, coached Munster in 2016 and 2017.
Second-placed Leinster, last winners of the tournament in 2021, beat Munster at the weekend and face Connacht in Galway on Saturday (7.35pm) before another rematch with Ronan O'Gara's La Rochelle in round one of the Investec Champions Cup.
Watch highlights of all the weekend's action on Against the Head, 8pm, RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
Watch Connacht v Leinster in the URC on Saturday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on www.rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app or listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra
