White wants to stay as Bok coach
17 Jul 2006
Jake White says his future is with South Africa and not England.
White told Independent Newspapers rugby writer Peter Bills that he had informed the RFU he was no longer interested in leaving South Africa. He said he had told the players he was fully behind them and the Springboks.
“I have told them I won’t be leaving, I am in with them on this. There is no chance of me leaving. And after this performance, I am doubly determined to make the Springboks successful again in time for the World Cup.”
It may, however, be all too little too late for White, who used the possibility of the RFU Director of Rugby job to get his contract extended to 2009. White’s world in the last month has come crashing down with crushing defeats to France and Australia. The Bok coach has lost his last four internationals against top five teams and in those tests his team has conceded 15 tries and scored just four.
White played his cards concerning the possibility of moving to England and the South African Rugby Union countered it by telling him to go.
Now it is White on his knees begging to see out his contract until 2007.
Bills, on tour with the Boks, quizzed White about his future after former Boks, including Frik du Preez, said White should pack his bags and go NOW.
White told Bills: “Comments like that are the ones that hurt you the most. As Springbok coach, I have been very big on standards and traditions and respected what has been achieved in the past. When you hear comments like that from someone like Frik du Preez, they are especially hurtful.”
White defended his team selections and the squad’s preparation ahead of Saturday’s 49-0 defeat against Australia.
“Our preparation was as good for this test match as it has ever been during my time in charge. And as for the team, if I chose a very different one with a lot of newer faces, people would say I was handing out Springbok blazers like sweets. You cannot win.
“I still believe what we are doing is right. But to take one detail, I think we conceded more penalties in the first half on Saturday night than we did all last season. That does worry me, because I don’t honestly know why. But the fact is, these top sides of the world are good enough, when you get it wrong, to punish you.”
White’s Boks conceded 13 penalties against the Wallabies, with half of those coming in the first half. Again, his interpretation is highly skewed as the Boks conceded as many against Scotland in Port Elizabeth and against France in Paris last year.
White said Saturday’s nightmare was new to him.
“I have never experienced anything like it in my life. I didn’t sleep at all on Saturday night. I lay there thinking about it, turning things over in my mind. What do you do about it, scream and shout at the players? Would that achieve anything?”
He then issued an ultimatum to his players.
“I don’t want to get personal about individual players. But what I will say is, every guy now has to contribute. We will learn a lot from seeing how players handle this adversity. We’ll see who is prepared to stand up and be counted this week, who will lay their bodies on the line against New Zealand on Saturday. This is a very tough school in which to learn but we’re going to learn a lot about our players by how they react to this.
“I always knew it was going to be difficult on this trip but I didn’t know it would be like that. Some players will sink, others will swim on a tour like this. All I’ll say is that if they continue like that, there is no way they can remain in the mix going forward towards the World Cup.”
163 Comments
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17 Jul 2006, 10:03 am
Agreed, JW is the best option right now but he needs to get his head out of his arse and be a man about his pride getting in the way of his selections.
17 Jul 2006, 10:20 am
ag, give the guy time!!
he took us from 6th to 2nd (that’s what all those guys who didn’t want to see the problems with jw’s selections, kept telling us).
o, and need I remind you that we’re no longer 2nd, but 3rd …… sorry, my mistake … we’re actually 4th.
so given enough time, the verdict at the end of jw’s reign may read, he took us from 6th to 2nd and back to 6th.
what an achievement!
17 Jul 2006, 10:29 am
Based on his recent performance the POMS wouldn’t have wanted him anyway:
- Stop being so stubborn
- Pick the form players
- Stop using BS statistcis
- Pick players in position, not where a figment of your imigination wants them
- Stop being so stubborn
17 Jul 2006, 10:31 am
Karibu,
You forgot to mention that he must stop being so stubborn!
17 Jul 2006, 11:01 am
i think jake white will turn this around and we will give the aussies a fright at home.
17 Jul 2006, 11:04 am
cab
by doing the gumboots dance?
17 Jul 2006, 11:37 am
Please remember this when saying players should be dropped right now. It’s not possible!
Jake made his choices for the tour based on loyalty and consistency of selection, something he believes in strongly.
These players are letting him down, and unfortunately he cant replace them, under the rules.
A big mistake on his part? Yes; but made with the best intentions. Now is the time for the players to which he has shown such loyalty to stand up and be counted.
Oh, and by the way, the defensive pattern works against anyone, anytime, even if it’s expected with the proviso that the PLAYERS get their timing right and actually make their tackles.
If these players really have turned to **** in a year, they can all be replaced when we get home, I think? Perhaps someone has clarity on that.
17 Jul 2006, 12:56 pm
Jake White was Side-Show Bob last year.
The year he’s the Ring Master in charge of the toruing circus known as the Bokke.
Catch them in Wellington this saturday and in a place near you soon.
17 Jul 2006, 13:57 pm
Jake says “And as for the team, if I chose a very different one with a lot of newer faces, people would say I was handing out Springbok blazers like sweets. You cannot win.”
No Jake, that’s a load of BS. Every coach, at some point, must pick new players. It’s the nature of the game. This doesn’t mean that you are like Straeuli who picks a new team every week because he has no clue. It means that you identify areas in your team that need improvement. It means that you identify new up-and-coming players that will strengthen your team. It means that you recognise some players are no longer good enough or the best in their position.
That’s what it means.
But then again, given your various explanations over the past year, you clearly think that we, the rugby watching and supporting public, are a bunch of ******* morons who can be fobbed off by moronic, half-witted explanations.
You are wrong in that. A great number of us do not know as much about rugby as you do – rumour has it that you are excellent in the technical aspects – but we are not idiots.
When you’re just blowing smoke out of your ***, we generally recognise it for the **** it is.
Anyway, since when do you pick your teams based on what “people would say”? That is the most pathetic cop-out that I’ve ever heard. If you pick a team that wins consistently, plays a good brand of rugby and, above all, GROWS and DEVELOPS, people will not accuse you of handing out jerseys like candy (even if you do).
You see, when you blow smoke we recognise it.
The problem is that you’ve grown sterile in this job. You have become unable to see your own shortcomings. You have surrounded yourself with a bunch of yes-men and, in doing so, have ensured your own failure.
17 Jul 2006, 15:05 pm
“And as for the team, if I chose a very different one with a lot of newer faces, people would say I was handing out Springbok blazers like sweets. You cannot win.”
Listen here Mr White… when has anyone ever criticized you for handing out Bok blazers? Infact EVERY comment I’ve read and person that I’ve spoken to has said that you are too conservative with your selections and need to look outside of your group of chums.
As for players who don’t put their bodies on the line for the Boks… Breyton Paulse is #1 on that list and I NEVER want to see him in a Bok jersey again. Total lack of commitment. It is he is afraid or scared of getting injured. Go back to France Breyton you wanker.
17 Jul 2006, 15:05 pm
Oh and just because White wants to stay doesn’t mean we want him to stay…
17 Jul 2006, 16:59 pm
Cab 155
With you on this one. I’m still not sure that we would have won with half the team changed the way the muppits suggested. This kind of implosion isn’t solved by Luke Wtson, Butch James or whoever donning their superman suits.
Jake’s OK, not perfect, but a hell of a lot better than the alternatives.
Personally I’d fine Jaco, Victor, the loose trio, Habana and a few others for unprofessional efforts. The coach didn’t drop the ball and so on.
17 Jul 2006, 17:26 pm
White is a good coach, things are just difficult now with big players injured and no players standing up to fill the shoes of Bakkies, schalk and JdV; Dont blame the coach; when he were choosing a winning team you fools praced him, WHAT NOW…???!!!
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