Former Springboks and Bulls head coach Jake White says that Leinster fans, players and coaches are ‘rightly upset’ with the team’s failure to win the Investec Champions Cup.
A fifth title has eluded Leinster, losing the EPCR’s top tournament’s final five times since hoisting the trophy aloft in 2018, which includes a hat-trick of losses in the showpiece between 2022 and 2024.
Leo Cullen and his coaching team have come under the cosh after their failure to get over the line in the Champions Cup and even more so before their URC success last season. White understands why fans, players and coaches are upset by the club’s failures, particularly when considering how successful the Ireland team has been in recent years, fielding many Leinster players.
Added to that, the Irish giants have recruited top international players like RG Snyman, Rieko Ioane, Jordie Barrett and veteran French prop Rabah Slimani.
Jake White: Leinster are better than their results
White discussed Leinster’s failures in the Champions Cup when he appeared on the RTE Rugby Podcast to preview the Irish club’s United Rugby Championship Grand Final against the Bulls.
The former Bulls boss, who was in charge of the Pretoria club when they lost the final 12 months ago, maintains that Leinster are the benchmark for rugby clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid are for football and understands why there is frustration over the shortcomings in Europe’s top club competition.
“They are upset, and they’re rightly upset, whoever – the coaches and the players – because they’re better than the results they’ve got in the last five years, and that’s why they know it,” he said.
“Those players have beaten the All Blacks, and they’ve beaten the Springboks. So they should consistently be able, as a provincial side with the bonuses of RG Snyman, Rieko Ioane, Rabah Slimani and Jordie Barretts that they’ve brought in, they should be able to put away teams.”
Won’t get too many more chances
The 2007 Rugby World Cup-winning head coach had a similar experience of reaching the showpiece fixture but falling short as he guided the Bulls to three URC finals where they were beaten by the Stormers, Glasgow Warriors and Leinster, respectively.
He believes his former club has a ‘much better’ chance of winning the final this year than they did 12 months ago when he was in charge. If they do, he says he will be happy for the players and won’t have any kind of bittersweet feelings.
“When you’ve coached that team… I know the players, I know how hard they worked,” he said.
“I said to my wife the other day, ‘The team talk I would give now from outside is we always talk about give me one more chance or if I could play one more game’. Ex-players, every time they hand out the jersey, they always talk about, ‘Jeez, I wish I could play one more time’.
“I’m hoping that the Bulls understand that they’re not going to get many more opportunities again. It’s crazy because I said that to them during the team talk before last year’s final. You’re not going to get many more chances to play a final, and here they are a year later back in a final.
“So, I would think that the message to those youngsters would be clear: they’ve got to take this chance.”
There is plenty playing into the Bulls’ favour this time around according to White, including a clean bill of health and access to a full training squad to prepare for the showdown at Croke Park.
Jake White: Bulls are ‘much better’ equipped for Leinster final than 12 months ago
Lessons learnt from previous final defeats
Last season, the Bulls were without star winger Kurt-Lee Arendse, who enjoyed a stint in Japan, while several first-choice forwards like Cameron Hanekom and Elrigh Louw were sidelined through injury.
“The stars are aligned from the point of view that they’ve got all their star players fit and available,” he continued.
“They’ve got a 32-man squad there this week training, which means they’ve got two full teams having a go at each other. So there’s not a case of you’ve got fewer players to train. Often when you’re on a tour, and you’ve got 23, 24, 28 players, it’s a bit difficult – a couple of guys with injuries you can’t really do much. But if you’ve got 32 fit players and you can do your scenario planning, it’s much easier. So that’s the bonus, and they have two weeks now to get all the niggles out.
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“I suppose the lessons they learned in the two or the three defeats they’ve had in those finals. That team also lost a Rainbow Cup final when I first started to Benetton away. They’ve served their time, but I am a realist; I know that that doesn’t give you the right to run out and win. And I’m hoping that they see that as that, there’s not a there’s not a given.
“You’re still going to have to play and play really well to beat Leinster because nothing’s changed. I still think Leinster is the benchmark of this competition.”