Jake White - Definition and Overview

Jake White was appointed the coach of the South African national rugby team, the Springboks, in 2004. He started his career as a high school rugby coach at Jeppe Highschool in South Africa, soon becoming the provincial schools coach. Later on he also helped coaching various under-19 and under-21 sides before assisting with the World Cup winning 1995 Springbok squads preparations by doing video analysis for them. By this time he was well known for his technical prowess in rugby circles and he lived up to his reputation by coaching the under-21 Springbok side to a victory in the U21 Rugby World Cup in 2002.

His involvement at every level of South African rugby gives him a unique insight into the game that not many other coaches enjoy, and it almost seems natural that he was given the role of national coach in 2004.

Under his guidance the Springboks have regained some of their respectability in world rugby, having won their first Tri-Nations trophy since 1998 and ending 2004 having won 69% of their games. The Springboks also rose two spots on the IRB's official world rankings: from 6th to 4th in the world during the course of 2004.

Jake was rewarded for his involvement when he was awarded the IRB Coach of the Year award by the IRB. The Springboks picked up the Team of the Year prize and promising youngster Schalk Burger walked away with Player of the Year. Soon after the 2004 Tri-Nations victory Jake's contract was extended to after the 2007 Rugby World Cup.