Jake on Tonga

Jake White talks about the narrow win against Tonga in which he was forced to make wholesale changes when his dirt-tracker side looked set to lose.

“I never expected it to be that close on the scoreboard, but I honestly never felt it was that close in the context of how we played,” said the Bok coach.

“We coughed up more than 20 points in the first 30 minutes and the frustration was obvious when we didn’t take those chances, through missed kicks and tries that were a pass away from being scored.

“Tonga started to get a sniff, which made them very dangerous, the crowd got behind them, as happens in a neutral venue and we were reduced to 13 men for much of the last quarter, so it was very important there was a core group of leaders out there when it happened.

“I think we read the situation very well. The youngsters were creating opportunities but were not finishing them and I could sense their frustration. The situation called for more player experience and as coaches we acknowledged the situation.

“There definitely was no panic from us in the stands. We identified this as a very difficult match because of the high of England and that is why such an experienced bench was selected.

“If anything it was a vindication of our selection as opposed to us being taken by surprise and panicking in our reaction.

“They were put in a very difficult situation on the field and they responded well to it as a squad. That’s a massive positive and it’s been a good preparation should something similar happen in the play-offs.

“They’ll have been there before and there will be the confidence they can get themselves out of that kind of situation. I can accept there will be criticism of the performance, but I am comfortable we are on track to negotiate the demands of a play-off.

“We have achieved all our goals so far. We’ve won three from three and with one match to play we’ve already qualified as top of our Pool. That’s where we wanted to be at this stage.

“Most of the hard work was done pre-tournament and now it is a case of managing the players through the final week of the Pool stages.

“Once the play-offs start it becomes a new tournament and the emotional and physical demands are greater. We have been very specific in how we would approach the first four weeks and I am not going to change that because the scoreboard favoured us by five instead of by 25.

“We won the test and we want to win the next one in Montpellier against the USA,” concluded White.