MARK KEOHANE | SA rugby fortunate to have two coaches breathing fire into the game

There were two South African coaching winners this week. One got to live and the other got to be acknowledged for making rugby in the Western Cape live again. South African rugby is only healthier because of this. 

Jake White could have died on the operating table. The man who guided the Junior Springboks to the World Championship, the Springboks to the World Cup title in 2007, and rejuvenated the Bulls, is on the mend. He is alive, appreciative and accepting that there is life beyond a rugby result. 

This week, over Twitter, I joked with Bulls president Willem Strauss and asked if Pretoria could survive a fifth successive defeat from the boys in Cape Town. Strauss responded that he couldn’t speak on behalf of Pretoria, but he personally wouldn’t. His emoji was one of crocodile tears. 

Strauss is one of rugby’s most impressive characters. He is physically in the shape of his life, and on appearance he would put to shame any rugby president on the global circuit. But his mind is where his presence is strongest. Strauss gets it, for all the right reasons. He engages on social media, talks to the supporters, is bullish when the moment calls for it and filled with humility when a result doesn’t go the way of the Bulls or any club or schools team in Pretoria. 

The game needs more people like Willem Strauss as elected officials, and the game needs the likes of Jake White and John Dobson as coaches. I consider both coaches friends, but that doesn’t mean we have always been friendly. The nature of my job tests that emotion. Jake is a straight talker. Dobbo is dynamite when talking and I don’t shy away from an opinion. 

 I beamed with delight when I was told White had survived surgery in an operation that so easily could have gone the other way. Jakey is still around and the game of rugby is blessed because of this. 

I’ve had many messages or voice notes or calls where they’ve thanked me for the brilliance of an article. Equally, I have had the opposite where they have questioned WTF! The beauty is we all get to go into the next week and we all get to fix whatever the emotion was we felt the week earlier. 

As a kid I wanted to play for the Springboks. I wasn’t good enough. My career highlight was playing decent rugby up until U20s. But I could write. I could touch type and in the dinosaur days of making deadlines from a Tandy on full-time, without a dictate service, turned my worth into gold. 

I felt I understood the game, but I learnt from the best coaches the older I got, two of them being White and Dobson, who also dreamed of playing for the Boks, but didn't. I learnt from players, ex-player and from supporters. I continue to learn. I beamed with delight when I was told White had survived surgery in an operation that so easily could have gone the other way. Jakey is still around and the game of rugby is blessed because of this. 

I chatted with him during the week and his perspective has changed. The fire in his belly is as hot as it ever was, but his mind is at peace. He is in the most contented space. He gets to wake up and breathe. The most endearing thing he said was something he didn’t even know he had said. The doctors told him that when he came out of surgery alive, he asked if the Stormers had won. Against Glasgow! He was working the league permutations.  

Now his brain is working way beyond rugby. In the same period Stormers coach John Dobson was named SA’s best for 2022. It was an obvious choice given that Dobson since 2022 has guided the Stormers to 20 successive wins in all competitions at the Cape Town Stadium and led the Stormers to their first international title in 26 years of the franchise’s existence. 

Dobbo has delighted the rugby people of Western Province and also the global Stormers support base. More pertinently he has united the game in his home city. The Stormers, multicultural and magnificent in winning the inaugural URC, were named the SA team of the Year and rightly Dobbo, as coach, was named the coach of the Year. 

Jake has made rugby strong in the north and Dobbo has made rugby strong in the south and that makes for a strong national situation. But beyond rugby, Jake got to breathe, as does Dobbo, and that is bigger than any result.