Jake White

Does Jake White have a valid point in blaming player fatigue on the last couple of results that went against the SA Conference leaders, the Cell C Sharks?

While it is true that the Sharks lost a few players to the national cause, it wasn’t as if it was the bulk of their side. Frans Steyn played one match, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira and Willem Alberts were all either rested or rotated during the 4 Test matches in June. JP Pietersen had the biggest work load for the Bok team if measured in minutes played.

In contrast, the Waratahs players who were involved in the Test series against the French, for the Wallabies, seemed to have lifted their game to an ever higher level.

The same can be said of the All Black players who were involved in a tough 3 Test series against a strong England side.

Does fatigue, when playing for the national side, only affect South African players? Not if one looks at how the Cheetahs Boks stepped up against the Sharks this past weekend. Their players also played all the preceding weeks, were involved in the training camps, played Test matches during the June Test window, but on Saturday they didn’t look jaded at all. The same can be said of Duane Vermeulen who played almost every minute of every Stormers match as well as the Tests.

The Sharks are good enough to still win the Super Rugby title this year, the pedigree of their players and coaching staff is second to none in the SA Conference, but they should be focussing on mental fatigue rather than physical fatigue. We have seen this picture play out many times before in the past, with both the Stormers and the Sharks. The Stormers have made an effort to address this issue with the appointment of previous Bok psychologist Henning Gericke, and it looks like that move is bearing fruit.

Producing one’s best rugby when it’s “back to the wall” and “underdog status” type rugby is good enough to pull off one surprise victory, but not over a sustained period of time and not to win a competition of this nature.

The following article was published on SARugbymag:

Sharks director of rugby Jake White has blamed his side’s late-season implosion on a heavy workload, but still believes they can go on to win the competition.

Defeats to the Stormers in Durban in late May and the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein on Saturday have seen the Sharks slip from first on the combined log to third. To finish second and secure a home semi-final, they now have to beat the Stormers at Newlands on Saturday and hope the Crusaders slip up against the Highlanders.

White blamed the amount of rugby his team has played over the past three months for their latest setback.

‘The Sharks players spent themselves in the four weeks that they were playing for the Springboks and also being involved with the camp leading into those games,’ the coach said. ‘Consider that those players have played for 12 weeks in a row. That is three months without missing a Saturday. Three months of having to front up on Saturdays without taking a break does take its toll. I have no doubt that it’s not the Australasian tour, it’s just the workload that is catching up to the players.’

White insisted the Sharks could still win their first Super Rugby title.

‘Everyone assumes that if you finish third in the competition going into the play-offs, you have absolutely no chance; you may as well call off the competition when the teams finish first and second. This team [the Sharks] has won the [South African] conference, they have 46 points and still have a chance of getting a home semi-final but if it doesn’t happen it’s only the first year [of White’s tenure]. Everybody is so negative about the fact that ‘gee, they can’t win the competition anymore’. I still think we have a massive chance of winning this competition and I still believe we can.’