Nienaber admits leaky Bok defence needs to turn off taps: 'We won't win World Cup like this'

The Springboks' vaunted defence might not be leaking like a sieve, but it's been inaccurate enough for head coach Jacques Nienaber to admit his troops won't defend their World Cup title on current form.

South Africa have already let in 14 tries from 7 starts in 2022, which is 3 more than what they conceded in the entire triumphant 2019 campaign and only 5 away from the amount they let in in 13 matches last year.

In fact, July's 3rd Test against Wales at the Cape Town Stadium - a match won 30-14 - started a trend of the Boks missing a notable number of tackles over their last five matches, which averages approximately 20 per game.

Yet while the extra week in Argentina spent preparing for Saturday's Rugby Championship meeting with the Pumas has been spent focusing a lot on defence, Nienaber revealingly explained that publicly-accessible stats aren't necessarily the metrics used by coaches themselves.

"To be honest with you, I don't know what the stats are currently. If you asked me what our tackle completion rate is, I wouldn't be able to tell you," said Nienaber, a man who carved out a reputation as a world-renowned defence guru before becoming national coach.

"It's actually not a stat I focus on because it's a bit misleading. You could concede four maul tries, have them all converted and be 28-0 behind without actually missing a tackle."

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That doesn't mean he's turning a blind eye. 

"Are we where we should be, particularly in terms of winning a World Cup? Probably not. There are a couple of reasons for that," said Nienaber. 

"One of them is selection continuity, which hasn't always been a big focus this season because we've