“Our aim was always to win the Rugby Championship, but also we used 34 players and there were some guys who got experience and we managed to build some depth within the squad,” the coach said.
“The main aim was always to win the Rugby Championship and we fell short on that, but there are some positives to take out of it. When we started this year against Wales, Cheslin Kolbe was the No 14 and we weren’t sure who would step up if he went down.
“We went with Jesse [Kriel] for the first time, Kurt-Lee played the second Test against Wales and he came through nicely. But now there are Cheslin, Canan, Kurt-Lee and there is depth in that wing position.”
Nienaber said Kolbe, who suffered a broken jaw in the third and final Test against Wales in Cape Town in the series that preceded the Rugby Championship, will have stiff competition when he returns for the year-end tour of Europe.
“Even a guy like Cheslin needs to put in some proper performances now because I don’t think Canan or Kurt-Lee did anything wrong when they were on the field.
“But we all know the quality of Cheslin, so it will be nice to have him back with us on the end-of-year tour. That is the one position where some young guys got opportunities.”
Nienaber is also excited about the stocks he has at flyhalf.
“At flyhalf it is the same thing. There was always this big issue about who was going to be the flyhalf and hats off to Frans [Steyn]. He had to slot in there and he will just get better in terms of that.
“We are in a better position now in terms of learning about certain positions than we were when we started.”
The Boks are next in action against Ireland, the No 1 ranked team in the world, in Dublin in November when Nienaber said they would get an even better idea of the team’s progress with next year’s World Cup in France on the horizon.
“We’re not where we want to be yet. As Siya [Kolisi] said, we need consistency. We play No 1 and No 2 [France] teams in the world and we have an SA A side, and it will be a challenging tour. But it will give us nice answers as to where we are.”
