Breaking up is hard to do, but Jacques Nienaber knows there comes a point where you have to respect a player’s wish to move on at a key juncture in their career.
It emerged yesterday that Ciarán Frawley is poised to leave Leinster at the end of this season and join Connacht, where he will be reunited with his old coach Stuart Lancaster.
A valued utility back at Leinster, Frawley has found starts in his preferred position of outhalf difficult to come by. This is largely down to him falling behind Sam Prendergast and Harry Byrne in the pecking order.
None of his eight appearances this season have come by way of starts in the number 10 jersey. Head coach Leo Cullen has opted instead to switch Frawley between inside centre and fullback, where he was deployed in last Friday’s late win over Ulster.
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With a World Cup coming down the tracks, the 28-year-old has designs on making that Ireland squad and forcing the outhalf conversation. Despite his versatility and worth to Leinster, he will know that regular game time elsewhere should stand to him in that regard.
Speaking yesterday, ahead of Saturday’s United Rugby Championship clash with Munster at Thomond Park, Leinster senior coach Nienaber refused to confirm the move. He said it wasn’t his brief to do so, but rather that of Cullen and Guy Easterby, the chief operating officer.
“My only input is from the rugby point of view – what’s their form on the field, so the off-field stuff I’m not too tuned into,” said the South African. “I don’t think there’s anything official yet, but he’s an outstanding bloke and if it’s the truth or not, listen, it would be lovely having him and working with him until the end of the season.
“Frawls, as an individual and a man, is a very, very important guy in the club. I’m not talking about rugby, I’m just talking about the person he is. He’s a team guy and as the Irish would say, there’s always good craic around him, there’s always a little bit of a buzz going around him.
“As a rugby player, he’s a quality rugby player. I really enjoy him as a person, I really enjoy working with him and he’s been good to me.”
Christmas takeaways from a strange provincial weekend
Pressed on why Frawley might find a move to Connacht appealing, considering the opportunities it could unlock going into a World Cup, Nienaber accepted the general point that players will always look to do right by their own careers.
He continued: “Let’s not talk about Frawls, let’s talk about any player – whenever a player or a coach moves on, they move on normally for personal reasons. Sometimes it’s family, sometimes it’s what they think is best for their career.
“In clubs and teams that I’ve been involved with, you have to respect that. So, if a player decides this is the best for him, then that’s the right thing to do. Ultimately, it’s his career and he has to make decisions that he thinks will fit his career the best.
“When you lose a player, it’s never nice, especially if it’s a standout guy. It’s sad. Last year, Mikey Milne went down to Munster, you also think of Lee Barron and you think of Michael Alaalatoa. He went from here to Clermont and now to Munster.
“There’s always going to be movement and players do it because they think that’s the right thing for them, for their family, for their career. One has to respect that, if that’s the right word. It’s a personal opinion from a player.”
For now, Frawley and Leinster’s attention switches back to the job at hand and their post-Christmas arm wrestle with Munster this Saturday. It follows their 31-14 Croke Park pummelling at the hands of their old foes in October.
But since that shock to the system, Leinster regrouped to win their next five games in all competitions, albeit with areas of concern still lingering around aspects of those performances, chiefly against Ulster, Leicester and Harlequins.
The criticism levelled against Leinster is that they look stale. While Nienaber admits he would rather win with more panache, he feels there is still value in leaning on the uglier side of the game when required.
“I think it’s for everyone to see that we’re probably not firing on all cylinders,” he said. “We do some good things, some brilliant things and then we make it difficult for ourselves in doing something a little bit out of character.
“When we make a mistake, like last weekend, Ulster were good enough to capitalise on it. The same with Munster when we played them in Croke Park. That’s something we are working hard at to try and fix.
“But if there’s a little positive we can take it’s that, especially over the last two weekends, you go in at half-time trailing and you must find a way. It’s ugly and it’s a grind and it’s tenacity, but they find a way.”
Nienaber added: “As a coach, you would love it to be perfect, where there’s no pressure and things go according to plan. For the heart, for the nerves and just for sanity in your brain, it would have been lovely [against Ulster].
“But there’s lots of satisfaction for a team that’s under the pump and who must find solutions and I feel that bonds a team together. We had to dig deep to get a result so, yes, it’s very satisfying when you get out on the right side of things.”
