Brumbies look set to appoint Jake White
Former World Cup-winning South African coach Jake White remains the favourite to replace Tony Rea at the end of this Super Rugby season after being one of three short-listed candidates interviewed in the past fortnight.
While Rea was initially short-listed for the job it’s understood he was not interviewed as he’s been unable to produce the results a Brumbies selection panel is looking for in a “turnaround” coach.
Since Andy Friend was sacked after round two, the Brumbies have won just a single match in six starts under the former North Sydney league forward.
White displayed great turnaround abilities as a coach when he took the Springboks from 2003 World Cup flops to the 2004 Tri-Nations title, and then finished his four-year reign with the 2007 World Cup crown.
It’s believed the only concerns the Brumbies panel of chief executive Andrew Fagan, former Wallabies Joe Roff and Pat Howard, and Canberra businessman John Mackay may have regarding the South African would be his ability to connect with Australian players.
Fagan would not reveal the other candidates but confirmed an appointment, several weeks after White was first speculated as the strong favourite, was imminent.
“The drums have been beating for a little while now but we wanted to take some time to be really clear with what we’ve been looking for,” he said.
“We’re now at the end of the process and hope to have an announcement at the end of the week.
“We had a really particular brief for the sort of coach we were after and that’s why we took our time to nail it down to a few contenders.”
Former Wallabies backs coach Tim Lane was on a long list of applicants that were not interviewed.
The 10th-placed Brumbies are currently in Cape Town where they are preparing for the weekend’s clash with the struggling Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.
(First appeared on Foxsports.com.au)
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