Jake White and South African rugby franchise the Sharks announced earlier today that they would be parting ways so that he could pursue international opportunities before the 2015 edition of the Rugby World Cup.
Jake White’s rugby CV is certainly impressive as he has a Rugby World Cup trophy to his name, along with a Tri-Nations championship. He also guided the Brumbies to the final of the 2013 Super Rugby tournament and the Sharks to third place in the 2014 competition.
This sudden departure was certainly a surprise for Sharks supporters and a suitably treacly sweet press release informed all that this was a mutually agreed upon separation of ways, but I have serious doubts about the sincerity of the content, purely because some of White’s previous history. He lost his Springbok coaching job straight after winning the Rugby World Cup as he refused to reapply for the position as he believed his contract should simply be renewed. The South African Rugby Union follows the same process after every World Cup and it become a test of will between the two parties, which White lost.
After a few years running his own business consultancy business “Jake White’s Winning Ways”, he re-emerged as coach of the Brumbies. No-one can take away from White that he is a fantastic coach, but it would appear that Jake White does what suits Jake White. Once it become evident that he was not going to be appointed as coach of the Wallabies, he asked to be released from his contract. It was not long before he reappeared as Director of Rugby at the Sharks, linking up with long time confidant John Smit, who had been appointed as CEO of the Sharks. During each tenure, he continually commented in front of the press that he would be interested in various coaching jobs, including that of England. I am not convinced that this leads to a trusting environment.
It is rather odd that Jake White is suddenly released from his Sharks contract without word of his next destination if he had already lined something up for the RWC 2015. Rumours from Durban indicate that the relationship was not as cozy as the press release would have you believe and that there had been clashes with players and staff regarding coaching methods and ways of dealing with players.
I wish Jake White’s future employers the very best of luck and suggest that they have a backup coach in place once he decides he wants to move on as it won’t be long…
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