Leicester have made Jake White their prime target to take over as director of rugby at Welford Road next season, should the embattled South Africa coach be sacked next month. White, 42, held talks with the club this week about the possibility of succeeding Pat Howard, who is leaving to return to Australia.
“If Jake became available he is obviously someone the club would want to consider seriously,” a source said.
Speculation about White’s future is rife with some reports suggesting that he is about to be dismissed. White has been asked to return home next week to meet officials from the South Africa rugby union apparently to discuss his future.
He has been under intense pressure this year after losing five internationals away from home this season and because of poor results on this tour in which the Springboks have lost to Ireland and England. He is due to come back to England for South Africa’s final game against a World XV, ironically at Leicester on December 3.
He has insisted that he wants to take South Africa to the World Cup, after which his contract ends. But a vote of no confidence in him has already been lodged by the Blue Bulls, which will be discussed at the President’s Council meeting in Cape Town next Wednesday.
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“He [White] will obviously have some things to explain,” Oregan Hoskins the SARU president said. The council cannot remove the national coach but it will make a recommendation regarding his position to SARU’s board, which meets on December 8.
White, who took over from Rudolph Straeuli in 2004, is a highly regarded coach of great integrity and he had an immediate impact as the Springboks won the Tri- Nations for the first time since 1998. He was made coach of the year by the IRB in 2004. However, in the unforgiving South African rugby environment, he has faced a chorus of dissent this year after a series of defeats that included record losses to Australia in the Tri-Nations and to Ireland.
Howard is returning to Australia at the end of the season to concentrate on his many business interests. He played for Leicester from 1998 to 2001 and returned in 2004, first as backs coach then as successor to John Wells. He was ready to leave last season but was persuaded to stay on for one more year.