Jake White and Sharks to stay with what works when they face Crusaders

Jake White, in red, will keep the same game plan that has delivered the Sharks to the Super Rugby semi-final against the Crusaders in Christchurch, New Zealand on Saturday. Steve Haag / Getty Images

The ACT Brumbies have abandoned his conservative game plan but Jake White’s Sharks’ side will not when they face the Canterbury Crusaders in their Super Rugby semi-final on Saturday.

The 2007 World Cup-winning coach left the Brumbies last year after guiding them to the Super Rugby final, and the Canberra-based side initially adopted White’s conservative territory-first game plan only to throw it out last week at the start of the playoffs.

Current Brumbies coach Laurie Fisher said his side would not abandon the running rugby that had taken them past the Waikato Chiefs to the semi-final against the table-topping New South Wales Waratahs. White, whose sides are built around a combative forward pack and a game plan that minimises errors and pushes an attacking initiative inside their own territory, would not be following suit against the Crusaders at Christchurch.

The third-seeded Sharks highlighted how ruthless their pack, led by the seemingly indestructible Bismarck du Plessis, can be when they bludgeoned the Otago Highlanders into the King’s Park turf in the first round of the play-offs last week.

“You’ve got to play to the strengths you have,” White said. “We’ve got a great scrum, we’ve got a good set piece and we’ve obviously got some backs that we can finish when we turn some ball over, so it’ll be the same that has been working for us.

“In knockout rugby you have to go back to what works for you and we have done those things consistently.”

White said he saw similarities in the Sharks and Crusaders, with both packs laden with internationals expected to try to belt each other into submission when the game starts.

The New Zealand side’s consistency was also evidence of their own conservative approach to the game, he said; the Crusaders have made at least the semi-finals in 16 of the 18 years of the competition.

“I’m preaching to the converted here, but the Crusaders are the most conservative team in New Zealand,” he said. “But they’re consistently the best out of all five franchises. You have to play to your strengths.”

While confident with his side’s game plan and ability to negate the travel from South Africa, White said he was unhappy with the current format and said the travel for the play-offs and regular-season draw could unfairly favour teams.

The current regular-season draw ensures that some teams may miss games against tougher opposition, giving them the possibility of an “easy” four or five competition points against the other teams.

“Sanzar is going to have a long look about whether or not we should have quarter-finals and play-offs, because we are wasting a lot of time, a lot of money,” he said. “Smaller competition, everyone plays. Player welfare comes first, national teams come first but that’s never going to happen when you’re trying to sell 169 rugby games on TV.”

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