'He had his laptop out in Ibiza airport, reviewing Munster's scrums'
WE’RE STANDING IN the Springboks’ private area of the Southern Sun hotel in Pretoria, getting tips for places to eat from the local journalists, when a familiar face emerges from one of the team rooms.
The sight of Jerry Flannery in Springboks gear is something that will take a while more to get used to.
He’s as friendly as always, shaking hands and checking in, but he’s a busy man with lots of work to get done before Saturday’s first Test against his native Ireland. Last weekend’s win over Wales was a good start to Flannery’s tenure as the Boks defence coach but he will expect a different challenge from Ireland at Loftus Versfeld. And this one is personal.
This new role marks the latest step in an impressive coaching career, the 45-year-old having joined South Africa after a four-year stint at Harlequins in which the English club won the Premiership for the first time in nearly a decade.
It wasn’t always certain that Flannery was going to be a rugby coach. When he was forced to retire from playing in 2012, he took on a Master’s degree in sports performance, then joined English football coach Arsenal as a strength and conditioning coach.
But Anthony Foley was in his ear and eventually convinced Flannery to return to Munster as scrum coach in 2014.
In typical fashion, Flannery didn’t waste a minute getting stuck into the new role, as former Munster second row Billy Holland remembers from a trip the same month as Flannery was appointed.
“I went on Tomás O’Leary’s stag in Ibiza that summer and Fla was on it as well and I’ll never forget he didn’t shut up about scrums over there,” says Holland.
“Then in the airport on the way home, after two or three days in Ibiza, he has his laptop out reviewing all of Munster’s scrums from the previous year.
“It just summed him up. He is somebody who does a phenomenal amount of work, he’s someone who believes in preparing to the best of your ability week in, week out and leaving no stone unturned.”
Flannery had shown those traits as a player. The former St Munchin’s College student got his break with Connacht before moving to Munster. He made himself one of the best lineout throwers in the game through relentless practice and was famous for his relentlessness in the gym.
Having spent two seasons as Munster’s scrum coach, Flannery was suddenly thrust into the forwards coach role in 2016 when Foley passed away.
Having begun to master the scrum coaching craft, Flannery was back in the deep end to learn the intricacies of lineouts and mauls.
Jerry Flannery is the new Springboks defence coach.
“He probably would have driven people like Donnacha Ryan and myself mad for a while because he wanted to know ‘why?’ It was always about why we were doing something,” says Holland.
“He really put the head down, worked hard, was the first person in and last out. You loved playing for him because he had done it and he was straight-shooting.”
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Holland laughs as he recalls how Flannery would physically get involved in training, getting stuck into the breakdown and jumping on mauls, living every moment of it.
That 2017/18 campaign was the first time Flannery worked with the South African duo of Rassie Erasmus, who had come in as director of rugby, and Jacques Nienaber, who joined as defence coach.
That was also the season scrum-half Jack Stafford, who would go on to work with Flannery in Harlequins, joined the Munster academy.
Stafford remembers being blown away by the “crazy work ethic” of Flannery, Erasmus, Nienaber, and Felix Jones, who later linked up with the Springboks to win two World Cups.
“Fla and Felix are the blueprint for the Munster way,” says Stafford, who is now living in Sydney and playing for Manly in the Shute Shield. “Jerry would epitomise the Munster values, that intensity and work-rate.”
Looking back now, Holland can see what it was that ensured Erasmus kept in touch with Flannery and eventually convinced him to join the Springboks.
“A non-negotiable for Jerry was you emptying yourself and preparing to the best of your ability every single week,” says Holland.
“The Springboks really speak to that side of things where you put your character on the line and show your true colours. That’s what Fla was about as a player and is now as a coach. He was so intent on becoming the best coach he could be.”
Flannery decided to leave Munster in 2019 along with Jones despite the pair of them being offered new contracts and after a season out of the game, he was drawn back in.
Initially, Flannery was keen to get a defence coach role and wanted to work in France but Harlequins turned his head with an offer to become their lineout coach in 2020. The chance to work with defensive guru Paul Gustard was appealing for Flannery.
Flannery won the Premiership with Harlequins.
One thing that Holland and Stafford both highlight about Flannery is his relentless intensity as a coach. They say he hasn’t lost his sense of craic, still has his “weird” sense of humour, and can celebrate when it’s earned, but when Flannery is on, he is fully on.
“He’s incredibly intense,” says Wexford man Stafford. “He’s a guy who would never really switch off, he’s always 100%.
“When I came to Harlequins, getting friendly with the lads and they were just like, ‘This guy has a screw loose.’ It was that intensity and commitment that he brought as a coach. It was Gustard and Jerry at that time, the combination was crazy intensity, crazy intensity.”
Stafford feels great gratitude towards Flannery, who got him a trial in Quins in 2020 after the scrum-half had been released by Munster. A short-term deal turned into three seasons with the English club.
“I owe a lot to him, he gave me a lifeline when I was down and out in that Covid period.”
He says that if he ever went into training early or on an off day, Flannery would invariably be there, doing more video analysis or working out himself to stay in shape. Flannery’s coaching helped Quins to the Premiership title at the end of his first season and Holland believes the English team’s new-found “grit” had something to do with their lineout coach.
It was undoubtedly good for Flannery to be part of a club who do things so differently to Munster. Stafford says he and Flannery would sometimes sit and discuss just how different it was. Munster’s old-school values were a world away from Quins’ focus on entertainment, enjoyment, and freedom.
When Gustard left Quins in 2021, Flannery’s role expanded to take in the defence. It was a fairly seamless transition.
“When he moved across to the defence, it was the detail and intensity he brought,” says Stafford.
“There was massive detail but he’d deliver it in short, sharp meetings. His individual feedback as a player was great, he’d constantly be on your case. It would be tiny, minute changes to help you. That transition wasn’t massive because of the nature of the coach he is. He is so meticulous in what he does.”
It helped that Flannery had spent a season with Gustard but he had also learned from Nienaber at Munster. Even before that, Andy Farrell had spent four months with Munster as a consultant coach in 2016.
Nienaber transformed how Munster defended, everyone’s eyes being opened as they moved from man-watching to ball-watching and set about bringing true linespeed. Like everyone else, Flannery was soaking in all the detail.
Flannery with Rassie Erasmus at Munster in 2017.
And yet, he has also come up with his own slant on defence, as Stafford saw at Quins.
“Having sat in meetings with Jacques in Munster, there were definitely elements that Jerry was bringing across in the Harlequins system but they were different ways of delivering it, different methods,” says Stafford.
“A massive part of our thing was getting off the line, stopping it on second or third pass.”
Quins’ all-out attacking mindset must have been stressful for a defence coach, leaving them exposed to conceding tries on turnover, but Flannery added layers to his approach in two full seasons leading the defensive part of their game.
Flannery – who spent time with the Boks before the World Cup last year before joining this year – has already pointed out that he needs to build on what Nienaber has done with the Springboks defence, adding to it and improving it.
While the announcement of the Irishman as part of the new Boks staff took some people by surprise, Stafford and Holland always felt he would be coaching at the top level before long.
One of the things that always stood out most to Holland was Flannery’s ceaseless desire to understand and learn.
“He was like a sponge,” says Holland. “He was actually like my four-year-old boy. ‘Why? Why? Why did you call this or that? Why did you do this? What about that?’
“He will ask the question because he has a genuine fascination with everything. He has got an incredibly curious mind. He’s also super competitive, so he’s curious not just to satisfy his curiosity but also because he wants to be the best.
“There was a lot of guys like that in Munster in 2006 and 2008, Barry Murphy and Ian Dowling and those guys. Were they the most talented players in the world? No. Were they incredibly hungry, driven, great friends and wanted to learn? Yes.
“Jerry brought that into his coaching game.”