Jake White: My warning to young Springboks who have tasted success

Let me take you back to 2013 when I was coaching the Brumbies. We were always on the lookout for emerging talent and we’d had a tip-off about a young kid, who was playing for a club called Wests on the Sunshine Coast, and playing in a match against a local university team. If there were a few hundred people watching him, it would surprise me, but this shaggy-haired full-back had something, so we fast tracked him into the Brumbies set-up. Boy, he could move.

If you haven’t guessed it yet, it was Jesse Mogg, and if you search YouTube, you’ll see burning defenders in front of 70,000 fans for the Wallabies against the British & Irish Lions only months later. It was a stratospheric rise.

After that whirlwind Series, I sat him down and said to him, ‘one of your biggest challenges now will be to go back to Wests again and play with that passion because it will naturally be a comedown’. You see, I had to get him to understand that Wests, the former club of Stephen Larkham, is where it all started. If he didn’t have the same dedication and desire to pull on their shirt, for the right reasons, it would seriously question whether he had the character traits to make it as a top-class player.

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I’ve been reminded of that conversation in recent days. It made me think about passion versus planning. I accept there’s a lot of effort that is going to go into planning the November tour in the short-term, and of course the quest for a third consecutive World Cup in 2027, however, I’m now on the other side of the fence as head coach of a domestic side. We have a group of players now coming back from winning a first Rugby Championship in 15 years. The players have compulsory leave, agreed with their players union. They naturally want to manage themselves, so they are always at their best at international level, and there is an expectation to deliver but it does is test the passion they have for playing their clubs.

I’ve never been confronted with this sort of problem before. I have players asking me for a week off and I say, ‘you’ve got to be kidding, you can’t have a week off.’ I don’t blame them at all. They are young boys and they’ve now tasted success – they are seen as rock stars but that will all end if they lose that passion. Having coached the national team and a provincial role, it’s not easy to navigate.

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There is huge adulation for these Springboks right now, but I can’t help but sound a note of caution borne from experience. I remember reading some comments about Canan Moodie, along the lines of, ‘in two years, he’s gone from me thinking he was going to be one of the best players in the world to an average player for his country’. They weren’t my words. I said to Canan, ‘this is the challenge you have, now you’re in the spotlight’, maintaining your standards. The very best do, and in this recent Rugby Championship we saw a few of them reach milestones. Agustin Creevy became the most capped Puma of all time, with fellow test centurion Julian Montoya not too far behind. In Australia, James Slipper won his 140th Test cap, overtaking the iconic George Gregan. Here in South Africa, Eben Etzebeth was lauded for surpassing Victor Matfield’s 127 cap mark.

To get to those giddy number of caps, it’s a fine balance between club and country. Do you lose the same intensity, preparation and desire for your club that you had before you became a Test player? It’s a question that will not go away any time soon. Indeed, several French club owners have questioned their Test legends and their attitude to their clubs. Eben had his detractors from his time in the South of France with Toulon and of course, Siya’s short-term stay in France was scrutinised in some quarters. Steven Kitshoff’s stay in Ulster will also not see him in the hall of fame in Belfast, either. This is nothing new. We’ve seen similar conversations about the likes of Johnny Sexton and Sam Warburton, who were chided for their limited game time with Leinster and Cardiff in the latter years to extend their Test careers. You’ll always get players who don’t seem to play much for their clubs, but they’ll be ready when the Six Nations, Rugby Championship, World Cup or a Lions tour comes around. The common consensus domestically is that these superstars are paid a huge amount of money, so they need to be available to play, and visible assets to the club.

That’s one of the things I learnt when in France. Post Test careers, a lot of Kiwis, Springboks and Wallabies go overseas, and they’ll often they use the club as a retirement package. They want to go to Paris or Barcelona sightseeing with the family. They’re not too upset about not getting selected and they start managing themselves, as they approach the end of their careers. However now, due to differing economic conditions, big stars are playing offshore and managing themselves entirely so they are ‘Test Match ready’. They’re happy to be rotated at club level and aren’t too shy about telling you when they can’t play. On the other hand, you do get players who will train and play come rain or shine. They are absolute warriors and I know which one I would want in my squad.

Now I’ve got that off my chest, let’s look ahead. I can see the next block of Tests could have huge implications for 2025 and beyond. So where are we? Firstly, the Boks. They are on a high and holders of everything. It’s remarkable this is the first time the Springboks have won the Rugby Championship in 15 years, especially with this special group of players Rassie has had for the past five or six years.

I read a wonderful article in RugbyPass, asking the key questions that needed answering. Can Bongi and Malcolm carry on forever? Is (Damien) De Allende not multi-faceted enough to play in Tony Brown’s philosophy? What happens at 9 when Faf’s body checks out? They are worthy of discussion. I’m not sure we need answers urgently but there’s no doubt they are the same questions levelled at the All Blacks, because they set the standards for so long.

In truth, the end-of-year tour the Springboks have lined up is easier than Australia or New Zealand. The Wallabies have a Grand Slam of home nations, and New Zealand don’t have Wales, they have France, so it’s a step up. There’s more wriggle room for South Africa to tweak or experiment and this is no disrespect to Scotland, England or Wales. We have been bested by all three over the years, with very strong teams we’ve flown over.

As for the Kiwis, I hear the likes of Sir John Kirwan and Jeff Wilson talking on The Breakdown. They say, ‘let’s give Scott (Robertson) a chance, they have new coaches, a new captain and lots of change in the set-up.’ For me that’s a very different approach to the one historically adopted by the All Blacks, because ‘judge me on the World Cup’ has never been the mantra adopted by the New Zealand public. Saying that, I’d expect the All Blacks to improve after more time together and I expect the fans and NZRU board to be patient, but it isn’t infinite.

As for the Wallabies, replicating the 1984 Grand Slam is their Everest. They were the weakest team in the Rugby Championship and despite Joe Schmidt making positive noises, the British media will heavily scrutinise them because they will be facing the Lions next summer. All the home nations players will be desperate to show up well against the Wallabies for a place in Andy Farrell’s squad because the Lions is the pinnacle. I read the extracts from Johnny Sexton’s book, and how hurt he was to be left out of the 2021 squad. It haunts him and who can forget Brian O’Driscoll being dropped for the 2013 Lions tour? That was seismic. When you talk about passion, just think Lions. These callow Wallabies are walking into the cauldron and Joe has to guide them through it.

As for Argentina, they’ve had one of the best years they’ve ever had by beating New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in six weeks – that’s never been done before, so no one will relish facing them.

It promises to be a glorious month of rugby.