Any Springbok coach has to face up to reality - he will have adherents supporting him and internal enemies that would denigrate him. So lets look at White as a coach and try to be as objective as possible.
White was never a top class rugby player and never played professional rugby. Always a technical back room guy he was appointed as the Under 21 coach when they won the then Under 21 WC. When Straueli made a hash of coaching - White was appointed as Springbok coach in 2004.
White had a mixed record as a coach of the Springboks in the period he was Springbok coach -
* the Springboks won the Tri-Nations Cup in 2004;* they had a poor 2004 EOYT;* the next year was an equally bad situation - the Boks being competitive in the Tri-nations - but again failing in the EOYT;* 2006 was a dismal year for the Springboks;* 2007 the Springboks won the RWC
One would have accepted that White as RWC winning coach would be retained as Springbok coach - but there were various factors counting against him as a coach. During the EOYT in 2006 he was summoned back to SA and the newspapers reported that he was facing the ax. However, his opponents was not properly organized at that stage and that saved him as coach of the Springboks.
From a personal point of view what was obvious during the time that White had a rather combative personality and that he had the ability to instill admiration by some and intense dislike by others.
From a technical point of view White had a very limited insight on backline play and in a desperate effort to correct that deficiency White roped in Eddie Jones as "technical advisor" during the 2007 RWC to off-set that deficiency.
However, even during the RWC in 2007 a fierce debate as to renewal of White's coaching contract erupted. There were two camps opposed to him -
* the quasi political clique led by Cheeky Watson with support of some of the smaller franchises, who could not stand White for personal differences; and* the Bulls and Cheetahs who conspired to make Heyneke Meyer coach of the Springboks.
For convenience sake the two camps combined their efforts and a decision was taken not to renew his contract. The anti-White alliance had their own agenda and they split afterwards. The unions supporting White initially got the hell in with the conduct of the Bulls and Cheethas and voted with the Watson faction to appoint Pieter de Villiers as Springbok coach.
After being largely out of the limelight in the period 2008 to 2011 - White was appointed as Head Coach of the Brumbies. White obviously regarded this as a stepping stone to higher office, However, he did not try and change the playing style of the Brumbies and the team performance improved - largely as a result of White concentrating on their forward play and leaving backline coaching to Larkham. After two relatively successful years at the Brumbies - White summarily ended his four year contract with them shortly after his candidature for the Wallaby coaching job did not produce results.
Whitre was then appointed in 2014 as Sharks coach. However there were major problems during his tenure as coach. The problems can at best be divided into -
* the playing style he forced onto the team had shorter term benefits for the Sharks, but no real longer term prospects of success;* his seriously flawed approach as to player management; and* his inability to start with and undertake a squad development programme at the Sharks.
The fact is that the style of rugby was influenced by serious problems relating to backline play - a continuous deficiency in White throughout his career - and a game plan that was a real negative insofar as crowd attendance at Sharks games were concerned. insofar as the team itself was concerned - he had favourites in the team that could do no wrong, while coming down on other players like a ton of bricks.In the end most of the players refused to renew their playing contracts with White in charge. No wonder his contract with the Sharks was effectively terminated,
After a short stint as technical advisor to the Tong team - he was appointed as coach of Montpellier this year. The signs are not positive. The Montpellier performances in recent games were seriously defective and the problem entirely relates to the style of rugby White wants the team to play.
White is a very ambitious person interested in coaching a national team and he will not hesitate to breach contracts when a new route for him to coach a national team opens up.
The real question is - is he a good coach or not. I would say he is a good enough forwards coach - but very weak as a backline coach.
Coach57,555 posts
20 Nov 2015, 12:22
#1
20 Nov 2015, 12:22#1
