Jake White attended Jeppe as a Tsessebe boarder from 1977 to 1981.
He later returned to the school as a master and was on the staff from 1986 – 1994
During this time it would be absolutely fair to say that he emulated the rugby feats of the legendary Jack Collard whose coaching prowess produces the famed centre paring of Des Sinclair and Wilf Rosenberg in the fifties when Jeppe rugby was at its strongest.
The Jeppe rugby sides were again a force to be reckoned with. James Dalton and Brent Moyle achieved national honours.
Jake left Jeppe to become a fulltime rugby administrator at the Gauteng Rugby Union. He was thrust into prominence, virtually from nowhere when Andre Markgraaf selected him as the technical adviser to the Springbok team and Jake was awarded a green and gold blazer. Markgraaf is to be credited with being a great talent spotter himself for he spotted perhaps South Africa’s best identifier of talent since Danie Craven. Jake has an uncanny gift in this area. He also has the ability to analyse and assess players’ strengths and weaknesses and design game plans around them.
Sadly for South African rugby at the top level, after their record equalling run, Jake lost out when Nick Mallett’s coaching team disintegrated.
He moved to the Sharks and took responsibility for the SA U21 side which won the World U21 Rugby Championships in 1999. He was also the coach of the winning U19 side at he World Championships in Johannesburg in 2002.
We have always appreciated his willingness to give time to Jeppe. We want to cement this relationship long into the future by naming our B Rugby field the WHITE FIELD
Presented by Mike Morgan
Chairman of the Rugby Patrons Association (2003) |
