Leinster and Ireland great Shane Horgan has expressed doubt about Jacques Nienaber’s defensive system and believes that it is not “an ideal basis” for winning the Investec Champions Cup.
The Irish province go into the knockout stages of the United Rugby Championship under pressure following their Champions Cup disappointment.
Having remained trophy-less for the past four years, the URC has taken on added importance following their loss to Northampton Saints earlier this month.
Both head coach Leo Cullen and defence guru Nienaber received criticism following that defeat and Horgan has become the latest to question the double Rugby World Cup winner.
The Springboks-style blitz
The 52-year-old has implemented a Springboks-style blitz at Leinster but the former wing is concerned that it can be exposed, particularly in the Champions Cup.
“The problem for Leinster now is that Northampton have shown how you can beat them. Leinster have started using an ultra-aggressive blitz defence under Jacques Nienaber this season and I’m not necessarily sure it suits them or is an ideal basis for winning a European Cup,” Horgan wrote in his Sunday Times column.
“It’s put in place to intimidate and essentially places a bet against the opposition having the skill or ambition to beat it.
“It has worked for South Africa in the World Cup where they have been able to intimidate teams with massive aggression in uniquely pressurised knockout games, but if you meet a team like Northampton who are not afraid to play and aren’t intimidated by the circumstances, then it can come unstuck.”
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Leinster’s inability to get over the line in Europe has been well documented but they have also struggled to win domestic titles over recent years.
They have never won the URC, with their last piece of silverware coming in the old PRO14 in 2021, and Horgan admits that the pressure will increase following their Champions Cup exit.
URC now ‘so important’
“The longer they go without winning a cup, the stress of not having succeeded only gets greater and greater. What was thought to be a problem only at Champions Cup level risks contagion,” he wrote.
“The semi-final exit in Europe this year means focus on that competition can’t excuse domestic failure. That’s what makes the URC so important.”
Horgan is also concerned that the fragilities which have often been shown in the Champions Cup will translate to the URC.
“You would expect some of the issues that have inhibited Leinster, which have unquestionably been mental issues, will now show up in the latter stages of the URC,” he added.
“They will have been asking themselves how on earth they didn’t get over the line in a number of cases. It is very difficult to reflect on that Northampton game and not think they had the quality to beat them.”
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/ireland-great-jacques-nienabers-defence-can-win-a-rugby-world-cup-but-not-the-champions-cup
