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'Who knows, maybe we leave the Boks out' - Jake White on returning stars

Jake White discusses the Springboks returning from the RWC and trophy tour

Following a gruelling Rugby World Cup and then a week of celebrations, World Cup winning Springbok players will gradually return to play at their various clubs.

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Squad member Marvin Orie, who didn’t get a huge amount of game time at the world cup, skipped the victory tour around South Africa and has already turned out for Perpignan off the bench against Toulon in the French Top 14 this past weekend.

Most players will have been given an enforced three weeks rest, with the trophy tour counting as the first week, so players now have two weeks to rest before rejoining their franchises.

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The South African teams – bar the Bulls – struggled in the United Rugby Championship this past weekend, so fans will be keen to see their stars back in action as soon as possible, bolstering their respective squads.

Bulls coach Jake White has said that he will consider his options when the time comes for players to rejoin, depending on how they do on the rest of their tour.

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They will have the likes of Willie le Roux, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Canan Moodie and Marco van Staden available for them and the plan is to have them ready by the time they take on Saracens on 10 December at Loftus Versfeld.

“Obviously we cannot wait to have that energy of the Springboks. You can imagine coming back from winning a World Cup, the kind of energy and enthusiasm they’ll bring to our squad,” 2007 Rugby World Cup winning coach White said after the 54-29 win over Zebre.

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“But what is also nice is the guys that are playing in the positions that those players can play, are also playing really well and that’s always nice as a coach when you’ve got so many more opportunities to sort of change your team around.

“Who knows, maybe we might leave the Boks out. They’ve got a compulsory three-week time off, and then when we get back, they’ll join our squad. If we’ve got momentum, I might give them another week off.”

The Sharks have lost three games overseas so could do with the likes of Jaden Hendrikse, Grant Williams, Lukhanyo Am, Makazole Mapimpi and Eben Etzebeth, the latter being the only one who played in the knock-out stages of the world cup.

The enforced rest only applies to the South African clubs, so overseas based players will be managed individually, with some perhaps back even sooner than expected.

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Comments

1 Comment
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WL 607 days ago

Hard to swallow that the once mighty bulls could only manage 1 forward to the Springboks and he could not even make the team.

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AllyOz 11 minutes ago
Has Quade Cooper solved a Lions riddle for Australia?

I also think that the lack of layers in the Australian system and the short season length also contributes to our lack of player development. All of the “three amigos” were in the Australian side from a very early age. We have Super Rugby but it is only 15 weeks long now (if you don’t make the finals - which our sides don’t typically do). And we only have 4 - 5 teams so, for 10s, there is only 1 or 2 spots up for grabs and one player is going to get most of the time. I imagine, in Europe where you have a longer season and then European Championship and then, in France, also a professional division below, a player of ability will get more than 15 games at the top level. There are tiers to progress through etc. The current 10 for France, on the All Blacks tour, has had 120 Top 14 games - we are putting blokes into a Wallabies squad after one or two good seasons (30 SR games at the most) and for others, like Sua’ali’i even sooner (but he did play at a high level in another code so he has had some time to develop).


We lack a tier or level, where players can develop that other comps have so that (1) they don’t need to be thrown in early (2) if they take a bit longer to develop there is a place for them to do it. You either have a place in one of the 4 (previously 5) sides or you go overseas, or you play at an amateur level. And also, you don’t have to push an older player out because, if you reach 24 or 25 and you haven’t made the Wallabies (or you aren’t a regular) then the prospect of playing OS is too financially enticing.

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A
AllyOz 44 minutes ago
Has Quade Cooper solved a Lions riddle for Australia?

Quade has a lot of very supportive fans, and also, in Australia (and definitely in NZ), there are those that do not like him as a player. I do think his coaches were responsible for him not getting a run when he was at his peak, Cheika didn’t appear to be a fan, giving him only one pool game in the World Cup (or very few chances anyway) but I think Quade also must have had issues in fitting in with coaches (or certain types of coaches). I also think there was a long period of his career where he played injured and was off his best. And he sat out a full season of SR to play club rugby rather than leave Queensland, when he fell out of favour with Thorn. He didn’t seem to settle in at Toulon, or the Melbourne Rebels really either and then he went to Kintetsu where he was in a team that was either bottom of the top grade or top of the next grade down, where, I imagine, it is difficult to get a feel of a players value to the national team. There are two (or more) sides to everyone of those stories.


I was in the group that probably was never a fan. I can’t really say why. When I look back on his highlight reel, there were moments of sheer brilliance and he took the Reds to a Championship win against the Crusader. But I guess I always viewed him as high risk and I am not sure that, prior to 2021, we ever saw his best. We had Foley as a long term 10 under Cheika, and also Matt Toomua and Christian Leilafano. Quade Cooper was easily the most skilful of any of those, but whether or not his own judgement or his ability/willingness to follow the coaches/teams plan was ever at the level of some of those other players, I am not sure. In some way I see him as a Finn Russell type, who doesn’t always appear to get along with some coaches but I am not sure it is always the coaches fault. I think Quade had the confidence that, if he thought he was right he would not be deterred from following that and I imagine some coaches (and not just bad ones) struggle with that if they are seeing different pictures from where they are watching.


I think he makes some good points. I really don’t understand the reluctance to pick James O’Connor and I think he makes a good point about changing coaches. I agree that there is a sameness to each of the 10s we have at the moment.


However, if we are talking about the last decade, we did have Michael Cheika as the coach from late 2014 to 2019 - so that is half the decade. Since then we have had 3 coaches in 6 years.


I do understand the charge about having lost our playing identity and I think he is right that we have perhaps fallen for the trick of trying to jump on the latest trend or copying what has been successful elsewhere and hoping that it works for us. But I am not sure how he personally would go as a coach. I see a bit of a similarity to Gregor Townsend personality wise but that is just a guess - Gregor has done OK.


I hope Quade doesn’t become the David Campese of his generation and getting involved in coaching might be a way to avoid that. It is interesting that he has written these articles in the Australian as they have been a bit anti-Rugby in Australia after they missed out on the broadcast rights.

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