Jake White won't be missed at Montpellier

Cape Town - A European-based rugby writer claims Jake White’s departure from Montpellier will be welcomed at the French club.

This comes after the French Top 14 side recently confirmed that White will leave them after the 2016/17 season.

He will be replaced by current Scotland coach, Vern Cotter.

According to Gavin Mortimer, a scribe in France for Rugby World, White has not been the most popular man since joining Montpellier in 2015.

“The saddest thing about Jake White’s departure is that no one much cares in Montpellier,” Mortimer wrote in a column for the Rugby World website.

“The former Springbok coach has never courted the affection of the locals. Big mistake. White isn’t the first Anglophone coach to fail in France, and he won’t be the last, but that a man of his experience should have so utterly misread the French psyche suggests stubbornness or vanity got the better of him.

“It went wrong from just about the first moment White arrived at the club in January 2015 and made an ill-judged joke about Montauban. Then he fired a lot of French players, hired a lot of South African players and got them playing a style of rugby that bored Montpellerians to tears.”

According to the French press, White’s failure to learn the language to any significant degree was a contributory factor in Montpellier president Mohed Altrad’s decision not to extend his contact.

French publication L’Equipe reported that White wanted to stay on in his role.

White, 52, coached the Springboks to the Rugby World Cup title in 2007. He also coached the Brumbies and Sharks in Super Rugby.

Read Mortimer’s full column on the Rugby World website