Jake white is essentially a struggling club like Montpellier’s dream, He is a World Cup winner, He is a Tri Nations winner, He took the Bok’s from 6th after their horror show at the 2003 World cup to 1st in the IRB rankings in 2007. He has won the IRB coach of the year twice in 2004 and 2007, no small feat whatsoever considering he took over the Boks after the Kamp Staaldraad scandal and dealing with numerous internal conflicts within the national set up.
White immediately found success with South Africa by winning the 2004 Tri Nations, little was known at the time about the former Bok’s Under 21’s coach, in his first game they narrowly lost to the All Blacks in the last play of the game but buoyed by their strong showings, the Boks stamped their authority on their opponents in their remaining two tests to seal their first Tri-Nations trophy since 1998. The Boks brushed aside New Zealand with a renewed aggression and held off Australia as they marked a joyous return to winning ways and firmly re-established the Boks as a major force in world rugby.
With the continuing build to the eventual World Cup win and his eventual resignation there is no doubt he left South Africa in a better state than he left them. He moved on from there to the Brumbies and The Sharks following that role after a 5 year hiatus from the game and he picked up from where he left off with the Boks, finishing runners up to the Cheifs with The Brumbies in the 2013 Super Rugby Final and finishing top of the South African conference and reaching the Quarter Finals being beaten by The Highlanders.
Finishing up his two-month stint with Tonga as a Technical Advisor, White signed with Montpellier Herault Rugby on the 30th December 2014 taking over from Fabien Galthie who was placed on gardening leave after an average start to the season.
In his first press conference White immediately set the tone for what the players and fans can expect from him, he focused on going back to basics, to instil a confidence back in the squad coupled with a winning mentality and arguably the most important thing for any rugby squad to remember – Enjoy the game.
Montpellier find themselves down in eighth place at the moment but White has stated his minimum expectation of a top six play off place and to then march on to compete for the title. He put down his marker in his first game against the might of Toulon. On a poor pitch Montpellier rallied to White’s battle cry and ground out the result which both White and the squad will hope can kick-start their season and recapture the form which took them to a runner up finish in 2011 and the Quarter Finals in 2013.
The on-going advantage for White is that he is familiar with a number of players at the club. He coached Ben Mowen and Sitaleki Timani at the Brumbies, as well as knowing Ben Lucas, Rene Ranger and Anthony Tuitavake from other Super Rugby sides, recent new signings include Nic White from the aforementioned Brumbies as well as South African fly half Demetri Catrakilis will bring competition for places, something which a good squad needs.
After the recent losses to Glasgow in Europe and Oyonnax this past weekend, Montpellier have a busy run in to end to the season with tough but winnable games home and away, their next 3 games consist of Grenoble and Toulouse away and La Rochelle at home. These are very winnable games as stated and with White re-educating his squad to have fun, enjoy the game and learning to play the Jake White way, he will be hopeful for a quick turn around in time for the business end of the season. Jake White is a man with a proven winning formula; he has considerable experience to draw on as well as many personal accolades to his name so who knows? Maybe he is the man to bring glory days back to the Altrad Stadium.
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