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Johannesburg - Former Springbok coach Jake White has joined the growing chorus of concern that top Springbok players may be burnt out before next year’s Rugby World Cup tournament.
White, who won the World Cup in 2007 after campaigning for player resting periods, believes the Springbok management missed a chance to rest players during last year’s November tour and could well end up paying for it at next year’s World Cup.
“We must learn from the mistakes and lessons from the past. We’ve always said it – the players are playing too much rugby and this schedule this year is incredibly tough for them,” White told Supersport.com
“Maybe we’ve missed it a bit, because we should have rested a lot of the guys for last year’s end of year tour. Last year’s tour was one which wasn’t as important, as it wasn’t a grand slam tour and it was one where you could rest the players a lot easier.
“Peter and the coaching staff need to work out a way to take a fit and fresh squad to the World Cup. Geez, it’s a long season and it’s going to be tough.”
White also said plans to choose Springboks who are overseas may backfire, as it sends the wrong signal to players who have been doing their best in the Super 14.
“Maybe they’re not going to be good enough to play for the Springboks and two, what happens to the players who do well in the Super 14? Does that mean they are not going to be picked? It’s easy for us to speculate, but until we see the team that is picked, but a lot of those players overseas that are picked might be tired and sore as well.
“They might not really be better than the guys playing in the Super 14. It’s a really tough one to say we will pick every guy en masse. I think we need to reassess it at the end of the Super 14 season – South Africa may be sitting with three pretty decent teams to pick from.”
Asked how he would handle the next 12 or so months to the World Cup, White said he would put the top Springbok players in cotton wool and ban them from playing.
“I wouldn’t have played the players last year and I would have rested all the players for the entire year. At the end of the Tri Nations, I would have told the public there is nothing more this group of players can achieve.
“They’ve won the World Cup, they’ve won the Tri Nations and they’ve won the Lions series. A large part of the group has won the Super 14. I think it is time now to get another batch of players to be able to play Test rugby. The public need to understand the aim is to win back-to-back World Cups and they need to bear with us.
“We wouldn’t downgrade the Springboks because every player who plays for the Springboks will give his 100 percent. But to see John Smit, Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield, Bismarck du Plessis, Jean de Villiers, Jacque Fourie, Bryan Habana, Fourie du Preez and Francois Steyn playing one, two or eight more tests is not going to show anything more to the world, or the South African public.
“What is it going to show? Those guys are talented players, that’s a given! They need to keep those players as injury-free and fresh as possible ahead of next year’s World Cup. They’re sitting with a massive chance to win back to back World Cups.
“From experience they didn’t rest at provincial level when I was coach. When a guy has 50 or 70 or whatever number of tests, to play five, or eight more Tests in a year, means little. You could rest this team for the whole year and still have the most capped team for the World Cup.”
