JAKE WHITE LAMENTED his own side’s decision-making in what transpired to be a heavy defeat by Ireland, but he believes Fiji did their hosts “a favour” before their meeting with back-to-back world champions South Africa in Dublin next Saturday.
White, South Africa’s World Cup-winning head coach in 2007, expressed his satisfaction that Fiji were able to compete with Ireland for about 55 minutes, but acknowledged that Andy Farrell’s side were well shy of their best before pulling away in the final quarter.
Invited to assess Ireland’s chances against his native country, whom he steered to World Cup success in 2007, White said: “Well, I think we probably did Ireland a favour today. Let me put it that way, ’cause I think Ireland, deep down, know that if they play like that against South Africa, they’re gonna be up against it.”
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Hired in October, White has spent only three weeks with Fiji’s players, admitting that he’s still learning their names — indeed, he told media that some of his panel didn’t actually know each other on a first-name basis when they convened before this Autumn Nations Championship northern series.
The recent Bulls boss said that, under pressure, his side had spurned opportunities in opportunistic areas by reverting to old lineout calls that they had not practiced under his watch.
While forgiving of his players, White was especially frustrated by his side’s decision to tap and go from Ireland’s five-metre line when the game was still a live contest in the third quarter, suggesting that the Springboks would have opted to put a squeeze on Ireland’s scrum and attempted to gain a numerical advantage, which would have increased their chances of scoring.
“I know how South Africa operate and they would’ve taken that scrum there and, I mean, they would have backed the fact that they wanted to get a yellow card,” said White.
“They would have taken another scrum and another scrum and another scrum, and they wouldn’t have worried about the ref making a call about collapsing or early engaging.
“If I’m coaching South Africa and Malcolm Max is standing there [as captain]“, White continued, “there’s no way he is going to say, ‘We’ll take the tap.’ There’s no way that happens, you know?
“Malcolm Marx will say, ‘Let’s take the scrum,’ or ‘we’ll kick it out into the corner and we’ll take the lineout.’ And that’s because they back themselves in those situations.
The five-metre lineouts that we didn’t take opportunities in, and the five-metre scrum and tap penalties, South Africa will turn those into points and I’m sure that Andy [Farrell] and the players will be aware of that.
“They’ve been around a long time, and they know what’s coming, and that’s probably why he picked the team that he did because he wanted to make sure that they get a little bit more gun-ready for next weekend, because the easiest thing would have been to change the team and then they’re probably one game shy of playing South Africa next week.”
White then laughed: “Please, the headline mustn’t read ‘Jake says Boks to smash Ireland’ — you know that’s not what I’m saying. It’s definitely not what I’m saying! I’m just saying that I know what’s coming, and I think in a lot of ways, Ireland would have seen that.”
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Jake White: Fiji 'did Ireland a favour' ahead of encounter with Springboks
JAKE WHITE LAMENTED his own side’s decision-making in what transpired to be a heavy defeat by Ireland, but he believes Fiji did their hosts “a favour” before their meeting with back-to-back world champions South Africa in Dublin next Saturday.
White, South Africa’s World Cup-winning head coach in 2007, expressed his satisfaction that Fiji were able to compete with Ireland for about 55 minutes, but acknowledged that Andy Farrell’s side were well shy of their best before pulling away in the final quarter.
Invited to assess Ireland’s chances against his native country, whom he steered to World Cup success in 2007, White said: “Well, I think we probably did Ireland a favour today. Let me put it that way, ’cause I think Ireland, deep down, know that if they play like that against South Africa, they’re gonna be up against it.”
Hired in October, White has spent only three weeks with Fiji’s players, admitting that he’s still learning their names — indeed, he told media that some of his panel didn’t actually know each other on a first-name basis when they convened before this Autumn Nations Championship northern series.
The recent Bulls boss said that, under pressure, his side had spurned opportunities in opportunistic areas by reverting to old lineout calls that they had not practiced under his watch.
While forgiving of his players, White was especially frustrated by his side’s decision to tap and go from Ireland’s five-metre line when the game was still a live contest in the third quarter, suggesting that the Springboks would have opted to put a squeeze on Ireland’s scrum and attempted to gain a numerical advantage, which would have increased their chances of scoring.
“I know how South Africa operate and they would’ve taken that scrum there and, I mean, they would have backed the fact that they wanted to get a yellow card,” said White.
“They would have taken another scrum and another scrum and another scrum, and they wouldn’t have worried about the ref making a call about collapsing or early engaging.
“If I’m coaching South Africa and Malcolm Max is standing there [as captain]“, White continued, “there’s no way he is going to say, ‘We’ll take the tap.’ There’s no way that happens, you know?
“Malcolm Marx will say, ‘Let’s take the scrum,’ or ‘we’ll kick it out into the corner and we’ll take the lineout.’ And that’s because they back themselves in those situations.
“They’ve been around a long time, and they know what’s coming, and that’s probably why he picked the team that he did because he wanted to make sure that they get a little bit more gun-ready for next weekend, because the easiest thing would have been to change the team and then they’re probably one game shy of playing South Africa next week.”
White then laughed: “Please, the headline mustn’t read ‘Jake says Boks to smash Ireland’ — you know that’s not what I’m saying. It’s definitely not what I’m saying! I’m just saying that I know what’s coming, and I think in a lot of ways, Ireland would have seen that.”
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