Bio

Jaco Pienaar joined Northampton Saints in July 2025, boasting an impressive coaching resume with stints in South Africa and Japan during a 21-year career to that point.

Pienaar began his coaching journey in Potchefstroom, spending over a decade developing young talent at North West University and later coaching the Leopards’ Under-19s in South Africa’s Provincial Championship.

A move to the Bulls beckoned in 2015, with Pienaar named Head Coach of the Under-19s team while also leading the University of Pretoria’s ‘Tuks Young Guns’ side in South Africa’s Varsity Rugby competition.

Pienaar then made the step-up into Super Rugby ahead of the 2017 season – joining the Sharks’ senior coaching set-up in Durban as Forwards Coach for four years – before moving to the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ and spending two years at NEC Green Rockets (Abiko) and two years at Suntory Goliath (Tokyo) in Japan Rugby League One.

He arrived at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens ahead of the 2025/26 season to steward Saints’ scrum and bring some trademark South African steel to the East Midlands.