Leinster hailed for 'brilliant' Nienaber swoop: 'They're getting all that Springbok IP,' says Swys

United Rugby Championship (URC) pacesetters Leinster's swoop for Jacques Nienaber was hailed as a "brilliant move" that will grant them a chunk of South Africa's rugby intellectual property (IP).

SA Rugby confirmed last weekend that the Springbok head coach was headed to the Irish giants following the Rugby World Cup in France, which concludes on 28 October.

Nienaber has been in the current Springbok dispensation since 2018, when he was Rassie Erasmus' defence coach. It was also a position he held at the Stormers, Cheetahs and Munster before.

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While the Bok job was his first as head coach, the Boks maintained a similar win record (61%) under Nienaber from 2019 to now as they had under Erasmus (65%), who led them to the 2019 world title in Japan.

Now, Nienaber is joining an unbeaten Leinster team, sitting pretty at the top of the URC log, that is heading into their clash against the Bulls at Loftus on Saturday (16:05).

"It's a brilliant move," said former Springbok assistant coach Swys de Bruin.

"The Irish work as one. (New Zealander) David Nucifora runs the four provinces and there are directors of coaching who share all the information.

"They're not like us. They don't have a little island for every team. All their franchises work in unison. I know this from having spoken to them.

"What they're getting now is a brilliant move by Irish rugby to get all that IP.

"If you sign a guy, you're not only signing him, you're signing his IP and the whole South African playbook is now going to be in their hands.

"They're the top franchise in the world and they're getting the World Cup-winning defence coach, which is a very clever move."

However,