By Brendan O’brien,Irishexaminer.com

Copyright irishexaminer

“We pride ourselves in fighting on two fronts, so we obviously want to do well and go as deep as possible in the URC and in Europe,” said Nienaber, the senior coach, “but we have to remind ourselves at the club and as players, that we are not entitled to trophies just because we maybe have a good squad, or we have good coaches, or we have a phenomenal fan base.

“That doesn’t give us entitlement to any trophies. We still have to work hard for it. So it’s important for us to realize that.”

That URC title was crucial given the utter devastation and sense of shock that followed their traumatic Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton at Croke Park weeks earlier, but it won’t satisfy the province or its support base for long.

So many near misses in recent years, including those three successive defeats in European deciders in the seasons before, still sting. Nienaber is of the view – publicly at least – that the motivation now is no greater than before.

“So this year it is exactly the same. Any sportsperson is the same. I don’t think Rory McIlroy starts any tournament not wanting to go as well and as deep as possible. That is the way of things in professional sport. You want to go as hard as possible.”

They start about their serious business on the back of what he admits was “an indifferent pre-season” with just one warm-up game and three separate groups of players coming and going at various times due to the summer’s Ireland and Lions commitments.

There will be no Lions on view on their season-opening two-game tour of South Africa which will create opportunities for the club’s younger players to live up to the notion that theirs is a depth that none other can match.

The province starts the new season in Cape Town on Friday night where they will hope to take down the Stormers away from home for the very first time. And they will do it with a coaching staff that has signed on through to the end of the 2027 campaign.

Nienaber was one of those to put pen to paper, along with attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal and scrum coach Robin McBryde, having arrived in Dublin after the start of the 2023/24 campaign due to World Cup involvements with South Africa.

Renowned as one of the smartest coaches in the business, his time in Dublin has split opinion given the sweeping changes that have resulted in playing style with a side known for its attacking cut now built on a blitz defence instead.

If there were doubts abroad about the wisdom of this approach longer-term then he didn’t have any when it came to extending his stay in Dublin.

“I can’t even tell you when [the new contract] happened. I’m not sure if it was… It’s definitely after the Six Nations that it happened. I think it was the Six Nations somewhere there. It might have been in March or April or May? I can’t remember the exact date. So the point is probably it happened a long time ago.

“The news only broke now, but the discussions and the decisions were made a long time ago. And then the other thing is, yeah, the why. For me personally and for my family, and then also professionally, it just worked for me for now. It’s just working and that was the reason. As simple as that.”