Wednesday, 10th October 2007 at 10:50 pm

Jake White off to Australia?

There’ll be no small irony if it does eventuate: after luring Eddie Jones into the Springbok set-up (and seeing a definite impact from the ex-Wallaby coach as a result), Jake White could well be returning the favour, and heading east to take over as head coach of Australia post-World Cup. And we thought Clyde Rathbone was tough to swallow…

National lines have long since fallen away in professional sport, with coaching in particular no longer restricted your own nation. Nick Mallet’s appointment with Italy is just the latest example… but coaching Australia? That’s something else entirely. Of all the nations to defect to, Australia is far the most unpalatable - and for White, it would seem, the most likely.

Much as the natural instinct is to have White shot at dawn for even thinking about it, however, the sad truth is that you know where he’s coming from. The World Cup is well within grasp, White’s masterplan on the verge of coming to a spectacular conclusion. And his reward from well-fed blazers who administer the game back home? An advertisement for White’s job in South Africa, with the incumbent told that if he wants to stay on (even if he wins the trophy in France), he has to re-apply for the job.

We should be immune to the farce that is local rugby administration, but in the context of a World Cup campaign rising to a furious crescendo, the news that White must re-apply (and have the application in the day before the World Cup Final - exquisite timing, SARU) is monumentally galling. And if the end result is White winning two successive World Cups with two different countries, we’ll look back on France 2007 with very bittersweet emotion.