Springboks vs British and Irish Lions Live scores

Nigel Owens. Photo by EJ Langner/Gallo Images/Getty Images

Springboks: Jacques Nienaber praises player’s attitude

Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber has praised his charges response to losing the first Test against the Lions, after their 27-9 win over the tourists in Cape Town.

Springboks vs British and Irish Lions Live scores

Nigel Owens. Photo by EJ Langner/Gallo Images/Getty Images

Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber has praised his charges response to losing the first Test against the Lions, after their 27-9 win over the tourists in Cape Town.

The Springboks mounted a second-half assault of the back of the Lions faltering kick reception game. The Lions led 9-6 and halftime, but 21 unanswered second-half points saw the series levelled. Those points came from tries from man of the match Makazole Mapimpi and Lukhanyo Am and 11 points off the boot of Pollard, who ended the match with 17 of the teams 27 points.

Springboks pull through

According to Nienaber, the Boks also won all the crucial scraps in a highly physical, tough and highly niggly Test.

“The players in our leadership group are very experienced, and we are in a fortunate position as coaches to have so many of them,” said Nienaber.

“Last week we lost the kicking game in the second half and the way the players responded during the week to adjust and make better decisions was really great. Sometimes I feel more like a facilitator than a coach with all the great inputs we receive from the guys.”

Nienaber was overwhelmed by the support shown by the Springboks supporters, many of whom showed up outside the team hotel earlier in the day and lined the route to the stadium to cheer them on.

“The support was amazing, we had so many people outside our hotel from early in the afternoon,” the Springbok coach added.

“On the way to the stadium, the roads were full of our supporters. I am so happy we could do it today, it was for them as much as it was for us.”

Nienaber believes his group of players are ever-improving, as they are now getting proper training time together, following the isolation forced by COVID-19 cases while they were in Johannesburg.

“We are still growing as a group,” said Nienaber.

“We only had two full weeks of training – we are still building, and we will get better, as long as we stay humble and work hard. The Lions came with new plans this week, and we adapted to that. This time we were ready, last week we were not.”

Nienaber said an injury assessment on Pieter-Steph du Toit will be done early in the week. Du Toit was replaced by Kwagga Smith in the 20th minute after picking up an injury after a late hit from Duhan van der Merwe.

The Bok coach also praised the impact of the ‘Bomb Squad’ in the second half.

“Last weekend we lost the second half 19-5, this time we were pretty dominant. We had a good impact off the bench and that helped us a lot,” said Nienaber.

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