How to fail the nation

Springbok coach Jake White did the right thing on the Sunday morning after the World Cup final when he said at a press conference that he wanted to take some time off to think before making a decision about his future.

Up until that point, White had appeared quite adamant that he wanted to move on. Understandably, he was sick of the political infighting that characterises South African rugby, and he was also tired of the inordinate amount of pressure that is brought to bear on the man who holds what must be one of the toughest jobs in world sport.

But equally understandably, the emotion of winning the World Cup, not to mention all the fanfare and back-slapping that goes with it, must have made it difficult to face the reality at that point that this might be his last big moment in charge of a team he has nurtured through four years and players he has become very close to in that time.

“I must say 80 minutes can change a lot of things very quickly and I feel like I am looking at a new world this morning,” said White.

Indeed. He must have been aware by that stage that he had also become the flavour of the month in quarters where previously he was despised. As a World Cup winner, everyone is going to want a piece of him, including those who were counted among his enemies just a few days earlier.

It would have been easy, in the flush of victory, for White to announce that he wanted to continue with the men he had celebrated with the night before. After all, the World Cup unit had evolved into a family during the seven weeks of the tournament, and you don’t easily abandon your family.

The big question though is whether that family will be allowed to stay together, and you got the impression, listening to White talk, that this was the crux of the matter. The team that won the World Cup is the one that White created, and given a perfect world, he would love to continue just because, unlike England in 2003, this is not the end of their cycle.

Os du Randt will definitely retire, Percy Montgomery is heading towards retirement age, but otherwise the rest of the 30 are all relatively young. And you just have to look at the teams lining up for Saturday’s Currie Cup final in Bloemfontein to be reminded of the talent that is coming through.

White would not be wanting to coach against these players in the years to come because he knows how good they are. If he simply hands over the team he has been with for the past four years to a new coach, he can expect them to be a massive obstacle in the way of any future dreams of World Cup glory with another nation.

South African rugby has always though been about more than just rugby, and White would be right to fear that once the euphoria has subsided, various other machinations might come into play that will make it hard to keep the group together. For one, there is still uncertainty about whether overseas based players will be available for selection next year, which rules out skipper John Smit, Victor Matfield and Butch James.

It is understood that White was given various assurances by political figures during the heady two weeks encompassing the semifinals and finals of the World Cup, and it is starting to become apparent that real politicians, those with the country at heart, are less rabid about certain issues than the quasi-politicians who work in rugby governance.

No-one can know for sure though which way it is all going to go right now, which is why White was right to delay his decision. He is set to take his team to Wales for a test match and then to Twickenham for a festival game a month from now, and he can assess the landscape a bit better once he has done that.

One thing that is for certain, however, is that it would be idiocy to suggest SA Rugby can delay a decision on the new coach until May. Rival organisations and nations are doing their recruiting now, and if SA Rugby don’t make some sort of commitment to White before the end of the year, they can take it as a fait accompli that he will move on to new pastures.

So while White thinks, SA Rugby, if they really have the sport in this country at heart, must be working hard on making it attractive for White to stay on. If they don’t, they have failed the nation.