RUGBY: Contrary to reports, the Springbok coach is a genuine admirer of Irish rugby, writes Gerry Thornley

In Irish rugby circles he is, on account of one injudicious comment, perceived as a villain, but the perception of Jake White hereabouts could have been a whole lot different. Just over four years ago, following Declan Kidney's move to the Ireland coaching ticket, the soon-to-be Springboks coach conducted a telephone interview with Munster CEO Garrett Fitzgerald when shortlisted for the Munster job. Truly, it's a funny old game.

White never got the Munster job. Instead, he earned notoriety a couple of years later by commenting on the limitations of the Ireland squad and has since been regarded, wrongly to be sure, as having a somewhat insular and dismissive attitude to Irish rugby.

The fallout upset White, particularly because he numbers plenty of Irishmen among his friends in rugby; he names Syd Millar, two former Ireland scrumhalves now based in South Africa, Roger Young and John Robbie, and the current IRFU elite director of coaching, Stephen Aboud.

"That whole thing for me two years ago was a little bit more than just a newspaper article. I really thought the way Malcolm O'Kelly summed it up this week was exactly the point," comments White.

"He (White) was being very honest," observed O'Kelly this week. "But typically Irish, we'll use everything to drive us on. Whatever White said he probably regretted. He had confidence in his own team. That, I believe, was what he based his comments on. I think every coach should have that confidence in his own team. But it did help us a little bit in our preparation; it gave us a little bit more anger."

Indeed, it was not unlike Ronan O'Gara's recent defence of his own Munster and Ireland team-mates, even if he too would have regretted the ensuing brouhaha as much as White did.

"Just to set the record straight," states White emphatically, "the number three was never, ever used. The reality is I was asked how many Irish players do you think would make your team. And my answer was the lock pairing are well known in world rugby and O'Driscoll picks himself in any world XV. The assumption is then 'three', but it wasn't done like that at all; I don't even know where the number three came from."

For sure, he'd have been better off dismissing the question as hypothetical, which he has done this week: "I must be honest - okay, we also didn't win the game, which didn't help - but I wouldn't put that down as one of my favourite weeks in rugby coaching. Considering that I've been here three times and I've really enjoyed coming here, and I have an affinity with a lot of Irish people who are really dear friends of mine, I didn't want to be seen by the Irish public as the sort of guy to say I had no respect for Irish rugby. That hurt."

Accordingly, White has been dutifully respectful of the current Irish team, the provinces and the structures. He refers to something Clive Woodward said to him a year-and-a-half ago - "Jake, if you want a model to copy, copy the Irish model" - and having cited its many pluses, concludes: "You couldn't really package it any better if you tried. It's probably the framework which all international coaches want to operate in."

Looking at the evolution of the Irish team since the 17-12 win over the Boks here two years ago, White also observes, "The one thing I'll say is that they've definitely tried to play a much more expansive game," suggesting Ireland attack much wider, especially off set-piece ball, than most Test sides.

Not without a hint of envy, he says this is helped by consistency of selection and stability at provincial level, factors also evidenced by how the Crusaders and Brumbies have underpinned the All Blacks and Wallabies.

Although White maintains the Boks' consistency of selection has helped stem the haemorrhage of players abroad, this tour marks his first real attempt to experiment while leaving a host of frontliners back home. With two clashes against England - his main World Cup pool rivals - coming up on this tour and two more at home next June, he's not inclined to show his full hand. "I have nothing to lose on this tour," he says.

To what extent the rugby media and public back home will concur is moot. Of course, being coach of South Africa, where reports of off-field and even on-field rifts and clashes seem almost monthly occurrences, White isn't exactly new to controversy.

"I've had enough trial runs in my life to be able to handle that," he admits with a knowing smile, "but in saying that, I think we've become a nation of change, and I've had time this year as a coach to sit back and reflect. As much as the Currie Cup is a great window of opportunity for the talent we have, the challenge I've had as a coach is to try and convince the South African public that a 28-year-old who's got 50 or 60 Tests is better than a youngster coming through the ranks. But we have the psyche that if a guy has a great Currie Cup he's got to be a Springbok."

South African sides have consistently underperformed in the more reliable yardstick of the Super 14, with the lack of coaching stability unhelpful. He points out that even the Bulls, South Africa's most successful Super 14 team, have had five coaches in the last eight years. The Stormers and the Cats have even been unsettled, and the domino effect has been a constant turnover in playing personnel, which White maintains has been South African rugby's "biggest downfall".

Having guided the Baby Boks to the under-21 World Cup in 2002, he was a breath of fresh air when taking over in 2004, winning the Tri-Nations in his first year in charge. In truth, they haven't progressed from there, especially in their back play.

Nor has White been helped by injuries in crucial positions.

"I know in my heart that if I put out my best XV, with my best seven reserves on the bench, we can beat any team in the world. But I've never, in 54 Test matches, ever put my best XV, never mind my best 22, on the field."

It's also worth stressing, as White does, that the All Blacks' only three defeats in the last three years were to the Springboks. The latest came in the midst of what he describes as a fixture list from hell: first France, then New Zealand and Australia three times each, Ireland and then England twice, all in a year before the World Cup.

"There are not too many countries in the world who would take on such a fixture list, and in a period of one year," he notes.

Nor does he have a free hand in selection, given the perception that the policy of "transformation" means at least five Blacks or "players of colour" in the 22.

"We have different diversities in our country, and different dynamics. That's part of the brief and I've got to accept that."

He cites businesses listed on the stock market as having a similar policy: "Because of the unfairness of the past, that's the way the country has to evolve."

Nevertheless, in a proud, expectant and rugby-mad country, where results are the ultimate barometer, White appeared to have all bar his heel through the exit door earlier this year when the Boks were obliterated 49-0 by a Wallabies team for whom everything clicked. He puts that nadir in the context of the damaging furore over his own future, at a time when he was also shortlisted for the position of elite director of rugby with England, and cites England's record defeat at home last week, along with Ireland's 45-7 loss at home to the All Blacks this weekend last year.

"The point I'm making is it happens in international rugby."

Looked at another way, though, following a fifth defeat in a row - albeit a first home defeat in three years to France, three games on the road in New Zealand and Australia, and then a home defeat to the All Blacks - the Boks responded with back-to-back home wins over New Zealand and Australia.

"That showed a huge amount of character. There's not too many sporting teams who would have done that, in fact not too many Springboks teams. I said it to John Smit (team captain) and the players in the team meeting - they won't appreciate now as youngsters what that means until they get older. The easiest thing would have been to call it quits and walk away."

Not White's style. Not the Boks' style.