Is Jake already lining up his excuses?
Is Jake White trying to get his excuses in early should his Shark team lose against the Crusaders on Saturday?
If his tactics against the last placed SA conference side, the Cheetahs, hadn’t backfire and the Sharks were victorious, they would have had the week off and played the semi final at home.
Would he have complained about the format then?
When his Bok team won the 2007 World Cup they did so without having to face either the All Blacks or the Wallabies. White never complained about the format being skewed did he? No, he benefitted and rightly so, the rules are the rules.
The New Zealand conference of 2014 was much tougher than the one from South Africa, with four of their teams in with a shout to make the top 6 up to the last round.
White, never shy to run off at the mouth, should perhaps think before he puts his foot in it, this latest tantrum already sounds defeatist and smacks of looking for excuses 2 days out from their match.
The fact is, not once since the advent of the 15 team tournament, has the sides finishing 1st and 2nd on the log competed in the final, including his 3rd placed Brumbies last year who made it to the final at the expense of the 2nd placed Bulls.
Jake White has hit out at the idea of play-offs saying that the semifinal is tilted too much in favour of the home team in a competition where some sides have an easier draw across the season.
The structure of the tournament is clearly biased towards those teams that finish in the top two of the overall log with an automatic path to the semifinals, and a weeks break, guaranteed.
On face value, this may seem like a fair reward for top performing teams but as White has stated – there are always going to be some irregularities.
The Crusaders missed out on some of the tougher games due to the conference system, with the Waratahs and Bulls bypassing the men from Christchurch.
“Had they played those games [against the first and ninth placed teams respectively on the log] we may be playing in Durban and we’d be a firm favourites and we’d be the team that’s going to win.”
“SANZAR is going to have to have a long look about whether or not we should have quarterfinals and playoffs because we are wasting a lot of time, a lot of money.”
White is looking to do away with the play-offs and have a proper round robin season instead.
“Smaller competition where everyone plays,” White said in his opinion of how the competition should be run.
“Player welfare comes first, national teams come first but that’s never going to happen when you’re trying to sell 169 rugby games on TV as opposed to 55 rugby games on TV.”
However, with all that being said, White has been quoted as saying it is not always going to be a simple matter of number one versus number two in the Final.
In fact, White, with the Brumbies last year and the Sharks under John Plumtree in 2012 proved that it is possible to finish outside the top two and still contest the Final.
“If we want to get to a situation where the number one team plays the number two team, we need to look at whether or not we should just scrap play-offs,” White said at the end of the regular season.
“For anyone who follows the game, if it ends up that one plays two every year then we might as well can the play-offs because we are wasting everyone’s time.”
“I have been there with the Brumbies, we came third and ended up beating the Free State in our play-off, we then had to go and beat the Bulls and then try and beat the Chiefs in Hamilton.”
“The more that happens, the better it is going to be for the competition.”
The Sharks, who missed out on second spot by a mere point, travel to Christchurch after defeating the Highlanders in a quaterfinal playoff game in Durban to contest for the right to play in the Final.
“SANZAR is going to have to have a long look about whether or not we should have quarterfinals and playoffs because we are wasting a lot of time, a lot of money.”
SANZAR would never sell this competition format if they would lose money from it.
Who’s money is being wasted?
1 @ MacroBull:
Let’s say the Sharks fail to make the CC playoffs, I wonder if he will blame the new 8 team format for that?
He should have made these points and issues before the tournament started, not after his team messed up their chance to be in the top 2
@ nortierd:
Ons het nooit ‘n kans teen Jayawardene gestaan vandag nie
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/49289.html?class=1;ground=679;template=results;type=allround
3 @ MacroBull:
Goeie kolwer. Kom ons kyk as dit ons kolf beurt is hoe gaan ons manne.
Kallis sal n slag iets moet doen op toer
Shut up, Jake!
disappointed he didnt mention SA’s insistence on a sixth franchise..
Whingeing already, White?
Every time I see a picture of him my thumb ends up stuck between my middle & index fingers.
7 @ BrumbiesBoy:
Yeah, mine too… he’s a totally dislikable fella!
7 @ BrumbiesBoy:
The problem BB is that, almost every single story about the Sharks goes all about Jake.
You hardly see or hear anything from the players.
Everything, every sound bite, article, etc. it’s all about Jake.
Remember last year when Brendon took the Sharks and won them the CC? In his contract he had a clause that he didn’t have to deal with or talk to the media. They should have forced a similar clause on Jake
@ nortierd:
The thing is Jake causes sensation and his presence causes emotion from people that love or hate him… He is the Kim Kardashian of rugby.
10 @ MacroBull:
Ha ha, no MB, sy gat is nie so groot nie.
The question is, is he putting undue pressure on his players?
If they seem to prefer to quietly go about their business, do they really need him to write cheques with his mouth that he expects them to pay?
Or is this a Sharks ploy and strategy that all the hype and sideshows must come from Jake, leaving the players to concentrate on just playing?
I’ll tell you this though, if the Sharks win and the Tah’s win, next week is going to a lot of fun with Jake and Cheika spouting off the mouth
@ nortierd:
hehe true, just saying that when Pdv was bok coach he was in the news all the time compared to HM. So the media and us their readers feed on that, much the same can be said about ACoetzee.
Jake has to attend these pressers and the press will blow up whatever he says, because just about anything will get a reaction from the public.
8 @ grootblousmile:
9 @ nortierd:
Jake what a karakter!
Bok coaching legend.
😆
12 @ MacroBull:
PDivvie at least could claim that the questions were lost in translation
😀
nortierd wrote:
Kallis has retired from test cricket?
Gunther – a legend in his own lunchtime…
@ Scrumdown:
Ha ha, I got that after the post 😳
No excuses, lol
nortierd wrote:
We could just rip is tongue out with a pair of decent vice grips!
Scrumdown wrote:
Nah, knowing Jake, he will just learn to talk k@k in sign language
@ BrumbiesBoy:
Still crying?
You are worse than Grantie and Smittie…
😆
nortierd wrote:
Yeah, like smearing his excrement over the mic’.
@ nortierd:
“Nah, knowing Jake he will just learn to talk k@k in sign language.”
Something like this perhaps?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sO_q8OR2c4Q
Somebody mentioned on Voldy at the time that there were stories about him even sending his missus back to “sort out” the house in Canberra because he didn’t want to show his face there…
23 @ nortierd:
Can’t listen now but will do so at lunchtime; looks hilarious!
Blommeties scorched to 26/2 off 22 overs.
@ nortierd:
15
Gems such as : “talks are cheap, money buys the whiskey” ?
😆
I agree, JW maintains same sub standards level of PdV and AC in drivel quality, doesn’t he?
But he is a way BEHIND them in drivel quantity, something the CT boykies nead to remember!
😆 😆 😆
@ Hondo:
27
‘Nead’ = ‘Need’ 🙁
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