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New footage changes narrative in Antoine Dupont and Ben White spat
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Jake White has the solution to fix 'sleeping giant' England's problems
By Neil Fissler
Springboks World Cup-winning coach Jake White believes that England need to find themselves a Sir Clive Woodward-type figure to take some of the pressure off under-fire head coach Steve Borthwick.
Borthwick was given the dreaded vote of confidence after last weekend’s humiliating defeat at the hands of Italy in Rome, which left them fifth in the Six Nations table after three losses in their four games.
White, who led the Boks to World Cup glory in 2007, says the England job is too big for just one man, and they need to return to the philosophy and vision of Woodward, who took them to the top of the world in 2003.
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“I’ve always pushed that England needs, almost like New Zealand did for a long time when they had Henry and Hansen coaching together, two coaches, or they need coaches who are a bit more experienced.
“Because there’s a lot more to handle when you coach in England, and I think Borthwick, that this is not a knock on him because his staff is so inexperienced, he basically has to think and do all the things on his own.
“So, making changes for this last weekend’s game, I mean, it cost him. There’s no doubt in my mind, it cost him. And maybe he wouldn’t have done that if he had an older, wiser head coaching with him.
“England have got an incredible Premiership. It’s not as tough as it was because there’s no relegation now, but it’s still a tough competition. They’ve got unbelievable resources.
“They’ve got junior structures that are consistent in the last 10 years. They were always there and about when it came to under-18s and under-20 tournaments.
“The negative for me is I just think sometimes they just haven’t been able to put all the pieces together. In other words, someone like Clive.
“England needs to find a way in which they can put the best people as a group collectively into that coaching structure.
“I brought in Clive to help me with a presentation in South Africa on what the cutting edge was in England.
“Clive was the guy who brought in, you know, Sherylle Calder for eyes and kicking coaches like Dave Alred. And you know, that was visionary in his time.
“But since then, there almost seems to be a switch-off from the kind of person involved with English rugby. I’m not knocking anybody, but there definitely hasn’t been the same push to get that calibre person in and around the England squad,” he said.
White has twice been interviewed by England, once in 2011 before they appointed Stuart Lancaster, and then following their 2015 World Cup disaster, when they stunned the rugby world by moving for Eddie Jones.
And he has revealed that the idea was for him to do the job with Jones to replicate something that has served the All Blacks so well down the years.
“I interviewed with Francis Baron, when Martin Johnson was under the pump in 2011. And then Francis Baron left three weeks after I interviewed with him, so we obviously ran into a dead end on that one.
“I then interviewed with Ian Ritchie in 2015. I was in London with the Montpellier team, playing against Harlequins in the European Cup, and I did a three-hour interview off-site at a rugby agency office.
“I pushed the agenda of doing the England side with Eddie Jones. Eddie had always said to me, “We need to coach together, we need to coach together.
“I was under the impression that Eddie had the same philosophy as me, that we would do it together. And obviously, that’s not what happened in the end.
“But anyway, I spent three hours explaining to Ian Ritchie why you need two coaches to coach the England team because of the pressure of the media and the expectation of the public.
“There’s no doubt England rugby is a sleeping giant. The All Blacks have had Graham Henry and Steve Hansen, or Steve Hansen with Ian Foster, or Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen, and Ian Foster together.
“The bottom line was that there was so much IP that they could bounce off each other. And that’s why I took Eddie Jones to the 2007 World Cup.
“I realised having Eddie, who had been at a World Cup, who understood the pressures of playing in a World Cup, he lost in the final to England, I just thought it was a no-brainer to get him on board,” he added.
