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White says time is right to coach Brumbies

By Ed Logue 19/05/2011 07:01:07 PM Comments (0)

Incoming Brumbies mentor Jake White says the time is right for him to rejoin the coaching ranks when he moves to Canberra from the 2012 Super Rugby season.

The 2007 World Cup-winning coach said he was enthused about the challenge of reviving the fortunes of the two-time Super Rugby champions.

"I enjoy the way the Brumbies play. I enjoy what the Brumbies stand for," White told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

"It is probably a good time to take over when there is a bit of change taking place."

The South African will move from Cape Town to Canberra at the end of this season.

The Brumbies are enduring their worst season since the competition began 15 years ago, with two wins and nine losses so far in 2011.

White said the state of the Brumbies was similar to when he became Springbok coach in 2004.

His first year as Springbok coach yielded the Tri-Nations title.

"They (Springboks) had a disastrous 2003 (World Cup) campaign," he said.

"They got knocked out of the quarter-finals by the All Blacks and they had not done well in the build up to the World Cup.

"That is part of taking on the job. I'm excited."

White revealed former Brumbies coach Eddie Jones was at his house when the Canberra job came about.

Jones guided the Brumbies to their first Super Rugby title in 2001 and was an adviser to White during the 2007 World Cup.

"Bouncing ideas off with him and discussing the Brumbies, (where) I was also quite fortunate for him to be there at that time," he said.

White said changes to the interpretations at the breakdown would benefit sides with a ball-in-hand philosophy.

During Jones' tenure in Canberra, the Brumbies were renowned for their attacking style.

"It is a nice time rugby-wise to get involved in a team that wants to be attacking and that wants to play with the ball," he said.

He said the dour style South Africa employed to success was about coaching with the players one had.

"In South Africa, we base our game on having no ball. We base our game on suffocating people. We base our game on defence," he said.

Brumbies chief executive Andrew Fagan said White had put together a coaching group to mould a competitive outfit for 2012.

Former Brumbies coach Laurie Fisher returns from Ireland to become forwards coach, backs coach Stephen Larkham remains, while his former teammate George Gregan will be a consultant and White will take over defence.

"He is not talking about 2015. He is talking about 2012 with a view of building those guys hopefully into Wallaby combinations over the next two, three or four years," Fagan said.

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