{"id":542727,"date":"2026-06-19T02:29:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T02:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/542727\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T02:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T02:29:15","slug":"theyve-beaten-the-all-blacks-and-springboks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/542727\/","title":{"rendered":"‘They’ve beaten the All Blacks and Springboks’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a>
Former Springboks and Bulls head coach Jake White says that Leinster fans, players and coaches are \u2018rightly upset\u2019 with the team\u2019s failure to win the Investec Champions Cup.<\/b><\/p>\n

A fifth title has eluded Leinster, losing the EPCR\u2019s top tournament\u2019s final five times since hoisting the trophy aloft in 2018, which includes a hat-trick of losses in the showpiece between 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s failures, particularly when considering how successful the Ireland team has been in recent years, fielding many Leinster players.<\/p>\n

Added to that, the Irish giants have recruited top international players like RG Snyman, Rieko Ioane, Jordie Barrett and veteran French prop Rabah Slimani.<\/p>\n

Jake White: Leinster are better than their results<\/p>\n

White discussed Leinster\u2019s<\/a> failures in the Champions Cup<\/a> when he appeared on the RTE Rugby Podcast to preview the Irish club\u2019s United Rugby Championship Grand Final against the Bulls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s top club competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are upset, and they\u2019re rightly upset, whoever \u2013 the coaches and the players \u2013 because they\u2019re better than the results they\u2019ve got in the last five years, and that\u2019s why they know it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose players have beaten the All Blacks, and they\u2019ve 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\u2019ve brought in, they should be able to put away teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacques Nienaber tipped for Eddie Jones role with Springboks: \u2018Rassie is a master at understanding that\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Won\u2019t get too many more chances<\/p>\n

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<\/a> finals where they were beaten by the Stormers, Glasgow Warriors and Leinster, respectively.<\/p>\n

He believes his former club has a \u2018much better\u2019 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\u2019t have any kind of bittersweet feelings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019ve coached that team\u2026 I know the players, I know how hard they worked,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to my wife the other day, \u2018The 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\u2019. Ex-players, every time they hand out the jersey, they always talk about, \u2018Jeez, I wish I could play one more time\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping that the Bulls understand that they\u2019re not going to get many more opportunities again. It\u2019s crazy because I said that to them during the team talk before last year\u2019s final. You\u2019re not going to get many more chances to play a final, and here they are a year later back in a final.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I would think that the message to those youngsters would be clear: they\u2019ve got to take this chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is plenty playing into the Bulls\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

Jake White: Bulls are \u2018much better\u2019 equipped for Leinster final than 12 months ago<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lessons learnt from previous final defeats<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stars are aligned from the point of view that they\u2019ve got all their star players fit and available,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got a 32-man squad there this week training, which means they\u2019ve got two full teams having a go at each other. So there\u2019s not a case of you\u2019ve got fewer players to train. Often when you\u2019re on a tour, and you\u2019ve got 23, 24, 28 players, it\u2019s a bit difficult \u2013 a couple of guys with injuries you can\u2019t really do much. But if you\u2019ve got 32 fit players and you can do your scenario planning, it\u2019s much easier. So that\u2019s the bonus, and they have two weeks now to get all the niggles out.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose the lessons they learned in the two or the three defeats they\u2019ve had in those finals. That team also lost a Rainbow Cup final when I first started to Benetton away. They\u2019ve served their time, but I am a realist; I know that that doesn\u2019t give you the right to run out and win. And I\u2019m hoping that they see that as that, there\u2019s not a there\u2019s not a given.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re still going to have to play and play really well to beat Leinster because nothing\u2019s changed. I still think Leinster is the benchmark of this competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0<\/b>Bernard Jackman: Johan Ackermann is taking a \u2018big gamble\u2019 with Springbok\u2019s selection call versus Leinster<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Springboks and Bulls head coach Jake White says that Leinster fans, players and coaches are \u2018rightly upset\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[61008,18,794,19,119382,17,232816,38909,5,132,42271],"class_list":["post-542727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-bulls","tag-eire","tag-home-page","tag-ie","tag-investec-champions-cup","tag-ireland","tag-jake-white","tag-leinster","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116774422193626886","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}