Why Jake must stay as coach

It is uncanny the similarities that you will find if you look at the Springbok coaching careers of Jake White and one of his predecessors, Nick Mallett.

Just as Mallett did in 1998, White won his first crack at the Tri-Nations trophy in 2004. Just as Mallett did after Carel du Plessis, White brought a bit of stability and pride back to the Springbok team following the dark days that marred the last stages of Rudolf Straeuli’s reign as national coach.

For two years, it appeared that, from the perspective of Springbok fans and the media critics in South Africa, both White and Mallett could walk on water if they tried to do that. Everything they touched turned to gold.

But for both, the wheel swung against them in their third year. Mallett ran into transformation problems when he did not select Breyton Paulse and Deon Kayser in some of the early test matches of the 1999 season, while White’s failure to choose someone like Akona Ndungane right from the outset, and opting for Andre Snyman instead, gave ammunition to those who wanted to question his commitment to bringing black players through.

Mallett’s team then went on to hit a losing sequence, as did White’s. Mallett faced a massive selection issue, and public outcry, when he dropped his captain, Gary Teichmann. White has caused almost as much emotion with his continued exclusion of Western Province captain Luke Watson, a player who he appears to have a personal issue with.

I am hoping though that this is where the similarities between the coaching career of White and that of Mallett ends. For the axing of Mallett in the 2000 season, just when he had owed up to his mistakes and was starting to show that he had learned from them, was one of the biggest errors that South African rugby has ever made.

It was a mistake not just because the administrators did not allow Mallett to apply what he had learned in the bad times (Stade Francais ended up benefiting from this), but because it became patently obvious after his departure that his successors just weren’t up to the job of being Springbok coach.

White has made many mistakes this year, some of them can be described as massive. Even though Pierre Spies played well against the All Blacks last Saturday, I still don’t agree with his treatment of Luke Watson, and reckon that, as Watson also has not done himself any favours with his public response, these two men should, for the good of South African rugby, sit down and thrash out their differences.

But when I see the alternatives that get forwarded by the media as an alternative for White, the realisation dawns that SA Rugby really have no option but to stick with the incumbent.

If Mallett was available, it might be different. He is a man who possesses the one thing that none of the other would-be candidates have, and which the All Black management have in abundance. We are talking here about international experience.

Mallett, were he to agree to take the Bok job, would be well equipped to handle the pressures which come with the hottest seat in South African sport. He has been there before, he has made the mistakes, he has earned the t-shirt. But he is unlikely to want it.

While the other coaches who have been forwarded as candidates are all promising and all have impressive domestic rugby resumes, none of them could be described as experienced. None of them have seen enough in their short coaching careers to prepare them for the rigours of the national job.

In retrospect, White was probably not ready for it when he first took over, and he was fortunate that he started as a winner. When the results went against the Boks earlier in the year, you could see he was ill-equipped to handle the pressure. He had after all only been a head coach at national under-21 level before that.

But he has been through it now, and he is also showing signs that he has started to learn from the mistakes. I have been one of White’s most vigorous critics this season, but my attitude towards him, which has swung towards much more positive, did not start with the win over the All Blacks.

The first stone was turned when it was learned that he had called in Alan Zondagh to be a consultant. The former Saracens and WP coach and current director of the Rugby Performance Centre believes in attacking rugby, he is a big one for flair and enterprise. That White was willing to talk and listen to him showed that he recognised where his team was going wrong.

And while it took a long time to arrive, his most recent selections have also indicated a willingness to drop what had become a self-defeating pre-occupation with continuity and loyalty. Jaque Fourie was not brilliant at fullback against New Zealand, but it took guts on White’s part to try him out there, and the selections were the bold ones critics had called for.

The team are also showing on the field that they are introducing new variations. The Boks showed a greater willingness to attack the outside channel both in Pretoria and in Rustenburg. It is not a policy of all-out attack, but they are mixing up their approach much more than they were. Against the All Blacks it bore dividends.

To me, what is important is not that the Boks beat Australia in Johannesburg next Saturday, but that they continue to show signs that they are changing their approach. It is going to take time, for you don’t just become a good attacking team overnight.

But to drop White as national coach at this time when he is showing a willingness to change would be silly. It would repeat the mistake made with Mallett six years ago. And by now SA rugby fans should be sick of this movie, which appears to repeat itself over and over again. You know, the one that sees a new coach as the flavour of the month when he first comes in and then becomes an ogre after he has been there for two years.

Graham Henry is the coach he is today because he has been able to learn from the mistakes that he would have made many years ago. Australian coach John Connolly is also a man who has been around for decades, and not just years. Let’s see what will happen if we allow the current national coach to apply what he has learned while still in the job, rather than release him to go and apply it somewhere else.