There is some irony in the fact that what in the SA rugby context is a rare flexing of player muscle power, with Jake White’s future as coach thrown into uncertainty, happening at the Bulls.
The team have historically built their strength around the iron discipline of coaches like the legendary Brig Buurman van Zyl.
You didn’t challenge the coach back then (the 1970s) and it was normal for the coach to be a complete dictator, someone who brooked no nonsense from his players. In my early days in the rugby media, Prof John Williams was asserting his authority in a similar manner at what was then still Northern Transvaal.
It is tempting to suggest that the winds of change have blown and that is why White is now apparently in the exit room at Loftus, but the reality is that there are different types of coaches and different coaching styles.
White is a good coach. You don’t win World Cups if you aren’t, you don’t take the Brumbies from nowhere back to being contenders if you are a poor coach. And White has done that with the Bulls too. Before he took over from Pote Human, the Bulls were nowhere near where they are now.
Sure, they haven’t won a meaningful trophy since the times of Covid-19, but then the media utterances that sensitive Bulls players and coaches have objected to and have helped give rise to the White saga are just a statement of fact. The Bulls don’t have the help from their national governing body that Ireland’s Leinster do, so it was no surprise that after ending second on the URC log they also ended second in the final.
The Bulls also can’t compete with the French clubs for buying power to compete in the Champions Cup. That straight talking may bruise big egos, but it is fact. Ironically White was starting to move towards his “Dream Team” with his recruitment for next season, but now looks unlikely to be coaching that team.
The point though is that if it isn’t an equal playing field for SA franchise teams, and the governing body aren’t listening, how was White supposed to air his grievances other than through the media? Not that it is just about that, and the Bulls’ failure and apparent unwillingness during White’s tenure to meet the national directive for a different demographic to the playing squad has long been a concern for rugby people outside Pretoria.
Ultimately, though, it comes down to management style, and from my knowledge of what happened when White coached the Sharks 11 years ago, he is far closer to the Van Zyl style — in his case it being more school masterly than militaristic — than say the modern participatory management style of someone like John Dobson. Both have their merits but also drawbacks if taken to extremes.
When Jake arrived at the Sharks, players and assistant coaches were uncomfortable when he told them that as rugby was their profession they would have to work 8am to 5pm working hours during the week.
He took the Sharks staff out of their comfort zone and was extremely unpopular but that was also the only year the Sharks won the local Super Rugby Shield. A Sharks Bok probably summed it up best when he told me “Jake is a xxx [insert expletive] but he is one of the best coaches I have played under.”
His abilities as a coach, like that of his former mate Eddie Jones, are what enables him to turn struggling unions around. Struggling nations too if you consider where the Boks were before he took over in 2004. Wales should take note.
However, like Jones, his management style may become difficult to live with over time and that may explain why he hasn’t seen out the full length of his contract in his last few gigs. Those who had noted this pattern wouldn’t have been surprised by the latest developments at Loftus.
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