Jake White renews calls for Springboks to be forced to play from home

Look the local franchises will lose talent and thats part of having a free market. They cannot afford the talent so they wont keep them. If you change the eligibility rules players still leave. The top talent leaves directly after a world cup and returns maybe a year before. The players that make up squad depth and are fringe players for the boks end up being targeted and they leave for good as do those players who have been in the system for years and havent had a national call up. This dimishes the second tier of players in franchises which destroys the depth needed to be successful in European competition. Its better to sacrifice franchise success in Europe for Springbok success internationally anyway. SARU makes the bulk of their revenue off the Boks after all and so their success keeps the system humming.

Putting South Africa’s depth and rugby pedigree aside, you can only agree with this argument.

The disparity in budgets between the French & Irish teams and South Africa clubs is too big a hurdle to overcome without the best international players.

Is it really that these teams have bigger budgets (that is the reason), or is it that their players have no option but to play in their domestic sides? If it was money though at least it would be a simple solution.

Personally I hope it doesn’t happen both in regards to having the Springbok as an opposition, as well as part of the SH competition (which would have to cease being the case with this change).

Players will still move overseas to earn more €£.

If can’t be picked for the Boks, will be picked by Eng, Ire, Scot, even Wales will.

You not getting the genie back into the lamp now. Kids at school are already planning a career outside SA. Let’s see what happens after the WC. The teams that underperform including NZ will adjust their rule.

Jake is doing all that he can to remain relevant. He seems to have an opinion about everything, these days mostly contrary to conventional thinking. This is one of the worst examples of his utterances; you can’t force players to reject offers from overseas; at the end of the day earning more money to assure their families’ future will be more important than anything else. Maybe time for him to retire or stick to what he’s doing at Selbourne.

For all it’s worth yall Bok fans talking about the Boks he is talking about the club sides

Genius Jake, finally starting to play the game for the good of SA by massaging the egos of NZ and Irish rugby. He’s even got BS on his side pedalling his narrative. Well played Jake.. well played…

No, the current system is great in my opinion. The older guys get less contact and prepare for test matches very well. The younger guys stay or play in elite competitions, they won’t be picked if they go to Japan early for the coin.

Jake White would know the challenges the Bulls faced, because he was the challenge.

The players he had (springboks or not) stopped playing for him. Which is fairly typical after a long enough stint with Jake.

Jake is flat out wrong. He’s just trying to seem to be relevant. The truth is the reason the springboks are competitive is because of eligibility. And the the Boks are the crown jewel.

The cash cow, the draw card, the engine that motivates the system deeper and deeper into the ground roots.

Our greatest strength in the republic, and this is going to only truly emerge as self-evident in the next 5-10 years, is the sudden diversity in our player gene pool. Because the game has suddenly become appealing to all races in South Africa.

When I see powerhouse rugby schools fielding teams with sprinkling of white kids, with size, pace and skill as good as any pacific island rugby machine, I get chills.

I watched township rugby games more recently. Featuring props in excess of 120kg as the norm!

Jake’s focusing on the wrong end of the spectrum. He’s talking from a mindset of scarcity - not abundance.

Which makes sense having started his coaching career during the height of Apartheid (1982-1985) in an ex model C, all white, English school.

A time when South African rugby was not only excluded, but relied on a minority population of 5 million privileged white people to field a few Currie cup teams.

Have a look at Parktown Boys now. Find the white kid.

And this is true for rugby schools in the Eastern cape, Western Cape, KZN.

I’ve said it before - it’s like NZ realizing that that they have a new island they can recruit from under their noses. Only better.

We might not have the money to compete with Europe clubs - but we certainly can afford to pay for one world class coach per side?

We skimp on coaches - and the best coaches are abroad.

I say - swap one more expensive Bok out for a world class coach, like the types swanning around the prem or Japan. Let those coaches work with the abundance of talent we have boiling out of the ground here on an annual basis.

That’s our greatest weakness in the republic. Coaches. And it’s been a problem for a while. If it weren’t for one, crazy, innovative coach in Rassie - SA rugby may have been in ruin by now.

They certainly were heading that way. Instead he unlocked the value that was always there to begin with.

Jake White must move on now. Make space for coaches with an open mind.

PS: Parktown boys 44 years after Jake:

https://youtu.be/FwKqtVEwn7s?si=9d3AfeCREHiMhmbX

My rebuttal to Jake would be: The fact that the Boks are allowed to play overseas gives a platform for other talent to step up which in turn provides a bigger squad for the Boks. The constraint for SA rugby is financial. Players making a living abroad is good for the growth of the game in SA. As long as the players get paid in €/£/$, the grass will always be greener elsewhere.