Bulls coach Jake White reflects on his Champions Cup dilemma, his time working with Rassie Erasmus as well as Saracens and the future of South African rugby union
follower in Europe is debating whether South African teams belong in our competitions at all, Jake White is arguing for the experiment to go further.
But White says the South African Rugby Union would block it, as they fear other franchises going bust playing catch-up; Western Province and Free State Cheetahs have had money trouble in the recent past.as head coach, have done very well as it stands, winning the last two World Cups , and currently number one in the world rankings.
“But I can’t see myself doing that for 40 weeks a year. You have to play rugby because you love it and it’s fun; it can’t always be a war. I don’t think the lawmakers ever thought that some coach would come along and pick seven forwards on the bench, not in a million years. South Africa are due to become full shareholders in EPCR, the company running the Champions Cup, next year. Last season White made headlines when he brought a weakened Bulls side toA trip to Castres in January is the Bulls’ only fixture outside South Africa between this weekend and mid-March, which seems sensible.
“In the middle of December, you’re now playing in another competition. And they don’t quite get that the reward of playing in this competition is from what we did last year.” On the upside, White says his Bulls players much prefer winning results on the road – they have won three URC away games out of four against Ospreys, Treviso and Connacht this season – to the Super Rugby days when South Africans teams could be jet-lagged and humbled every week on a month-long trip across multiple time-zones to New Zealand and Australia.“It’s not case of whether I believe in it,” White says of European participation. “It is definitely, definitely helping our rugby.
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