Sharks job could bite White

"It's almost like I've died and gone to heaven."

New Sharks director of rugby, Jake White, had it about right when he described his reaction to his appointment in the provincial union's in-house magazine.

The general reception of the news in Durban has been such that the analogy of the prodigal son has often been invoked. It's a little-known fact that White cut his coaching teeth as a Sharks Under-21 coach 14 years ago.

His appointment as the head honcho means he is also reunited with his former right-hand man as Springbok coach, former Bok captain John Smit, who is now his boss as Sharks chief executive.

Also, at a personal level, White is probably relishing the opportunity to show South African rugby fans what he can do at first-class level, having never been the head coach of a domestic team or franchise despite an illustrious history.

Based on the buzz around the appointment, White has apparently landed with his bum in the butter. But these are not the circumstances under which a typical White success story is delivered.

White's genius is not only building teams from the ground up and being a great selector; he's also the patron saint of lost causes and loves proving people wrong.

The most obvious examples of this trait are the post-Kamp Staaldraad Springbok team he took over in 2004, and the listless Brumbies he was imported to coach in 2011.

The Boks went on to be World champions in 2007, and the Brumbies were runners-up in this year's Super 15. Put simply, White is in his element working with teams that have nothing to lose.

The greatest example of White's resourcefulness in adversity was the way he forced the issue of taking former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones to the 2007 World Cup as his consultant.

Earlier that year, he had convinced the then sponsors, Sasol, to give him a war chest of R4-million. When he asked Saru if he could include Jones in his coaching staff, the suits, predictably, had xenophobic issues.

His response was to use the funds given to him by Sasol and the rest is Soutie maak 'n plan history. The thing about the Sharks job is that those skills won't really be needed because he has the budget, the players and the franchise's goodwill. Also, it doesn't help that the Sharks have just won the Currie Cup and now expect an assault that finally yields their first Super rugby title.

But forget that. White's immediate predecessor, Brendan Venter, may unintentionally have made things tougher for him.

Venter is said to have been as responsible for White going to King's Park as Smit is. While that implies mutual admiration, the two couldn't be more different.

Venter is considered a revolutionary, White a traditionalist. The potential issue to come from that is how the Sharks players appeared to love Venter's different approach during his short stint with them.

With White, it's probably going to be back to "big is best" while Venter reportedly views that mentality as the refuge of unimaginative coaching.

But in all fairness to White, he left South Africa as a schoolteacher-type coach who once instructed Victor Matfield to cut his hair, but returned as a successful coach of the Brumbies.

The significance of that is the Brumbies boys seem to think of themselves as debate champions first and rugby players second.

The Sharks job may be dressed up as an easy one for White, but it could become his toughest.