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Where Jake White ranks the Bulls' win over Leinster

Vodacom Bulls head coach Jake White speaks to Schalk Burger and Gcobani Bobo of Supersport after his side's victory in the United Rugby Championship semi-final match between Vodacom Bulls and Leinster at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo By Shaun Roy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Bulls Director of Rugby Jake White is a formidable coach with many conquests, including a World Cup gold medal.

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He rates the Bulls’ United Rugby Championship semifinal victory over Leinster at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend as one of the best in his long and illustrious career.

White was forthright when asked at the post-match media debrief what the win over Leo Cullen’s Leinster meant to him.

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Jake White talks about what the semifinal victory means to him

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Jake White talks about what the semifinal victory means to him

“This is one of the biggest wins I’ve ever had as a coach,” he said without hesitation.

After coaching the Springboks to World Cup glory in 2007, White held several roles. He worked with the International Rugby Board (now World Rugby) between 2008 and 2012. He returned to coaching and had a spell with the Brumbies in 2012 and 2013.

At that time the Brumbies recorded an historic win over the British and Irish Lions. He followed that up with a Challenge Cup win at French club Montpellier Hérault in 2016.

“I was lucky enough at the Brumbies to beat the British and Irish Lions,” White said.

“I was lucky at the Bulls to beat South Africa A in Cape Town [17-14 in 2021].

“But I would say man for man and with the pressure that comes with a game like this and especially because Ireland are coming here in three weeks.

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“That’s probably the bonus that I feel that this would rank this as one of the best club [franchise] results I’ve had.

“And I say that because the Brumbies must come close.

“You’ve beaten the British and Irish team with a Brumbies team without their Wallaby players, because all the Wallabies were away on camp.

“But in the modern game, and I’m talking now in the modern game with the way professionalism and the way the game has gone and what Ireland has achieved.

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“This Irish team has beaten the All Blacks and the Springboks.

“So for a club [franchise] team, and I say club team [meaning] no Canan [Moodie], no Kurt-Lee [Arendse], no Marcell Coetzee.

“It must rank for me as one of the best wins we’ve ever had,” White exclaimed.

He lauded the defensive efforts of his side, saying if a South African player decided this was the day that he was going to tackle, no one would get through.

“It’s like a school game in Pofadder.

“They might not score a lot of tries, but they tackle the hell out of each other.

“And today [Saturday] it looked like that.

“It looked like everyone was never going to let you through.

“That’s a credit to the fact that Leinster can attack,” the Bulls boss said.

White credited everyone in the Bulls system for the victory.

“The game plan has been spot-on.

“We got it right. We played in a way that Leinster never expected us to play.

“And that’s what you need to do when you get to these games.

“If you just do the same things, you end up running into a wall.

“The board, the CEO, the coaches – we all understand what kind of players we want and who want to get to the club.”

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3 Comments
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Craig 154 days ago

From school level SA boys are big into big Defence it’s a culture commitment thing.
They are judged on big tackles

m
matt 155 days ago

There really is something about a SA team when they lock in and defend. Really no better defending rugby cultures in the world.

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Tom 54 minutes ago
England player ratings vs South Africa | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

That 2019 performance was literally the peak in attacking rugby under Eddie. If you thought that was underwhelming, the rest of it was garbage.


I totally get what you're saying and England don't need or have any God given right to the best coaches in the world... But I actually think the coaches we do have are quite poor and for the richest union in the world, that's not good enough. 


England are competitive for sure but with the talent pool up here and the funds available, we should be in the top 3. At the very least we should be winning six nations titles on a semi-regular basis. If Ireland can, England definitely should.


England's attack coach (Richard Wigglesworth) is Borthwick's mate from his playing days at Saracens, who he brought to Leicester with him when he became coach. Wigglesworth was a 9 who had no running or passing game, but was the best box kicker in the business. He has no credentials to be an attack coach and I've seen nothing to prove otherwise. Aside from Marcus Smith’s individual brilliance, our collective attack has looked very uninspiring.

 

England's defence coach (Joe El-Abd) is Borthwick's housemate from uni, who has never been employed as a defence coach before. He's doing the job part time while he's still the head coach of a team in the second division of French rugby who have an awful defensive record. England's defence has gone from being brutally efficient under Felix Jones to as leaky as a colander almost overnight.


If Borthwick brings in a new attack and defence coach then I'll absolutely get behind him but his current coaches seem to be the product of nepotism. He's brought in people he's comfortable with because he lacks confidence as an international head coach and they aren't good enough for international rugby.


England are competitive because they do some things really well, mostly they front up physically, make a lot of big hits, have a solid kicking game, a good lineout, good maul, Marcus Smith and some solid forwards. A lot of what we do well I would ascribe to Borthwick personally. I don't think he's a bad coach, I think he lacks imagination and is overly risk averse. He needs coaches who will bring a point of difference.


I guess my point is, yes England are competitive, but we’re not aiming for competitive and I honestly don't believe this coaching setup has what it takes to make us any better than competitive.


On the plus side it looks like we have an amazing crop of young players coming through. Some of them who won the u20 world cup played for England A against Australia A on the weekend and looked incredible... Check out the highlights on youtube.

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