Jake reacts to the week’s events

Jake White spoke today about all the controversies surrounding him over the week so far.

Speaking about the soap opera that was the alleged drunken altercation in a Joburg bar he said: “You can’t believe everything you read in the papers as I said and, if you do want to read one thing it’s just, I think, I was found not guilty so we can move on.”

He was then asked about the fact that he had booked a meeting with SA president Thabo Mbeki for Friday – a meeting that Mike Stofile and SARU later barred him from attending.

“Obviously I’ve heard, you know, that the presidency of SA Rugby are not keen for me to go. I’m not going to do anything that’s going to, you know, obviously jeopardise anything, but I just think, again, out of courtesy I’d just better phone the president and just explain to him and, you know, and then obviously react from that.”

When asked about how the players were reacting to all the off the field controversies, he said that they had come to expect these kind of things as part of being in the Bok setup and that it had not affected their preparations.

“They’re fully aware that part of the turf there’s always going to be some sort of off the field activities or there’s always going to be some sort of, you know, story that’s going to try and sideline us and all credit to them – they’ve been very positive”

“The coach is always under pressure in this country. It is simply a reality of South African rugby. Fortunately the players in the squad all understand their respective roles, and the focus has been entirely on rugby.”

Unfortunately for Jake the week is not over yet. Anything can happen in the SARU circus – and usually does.