Monday Maul
Jake White: Rugby's new ferryman
Tom Hamilton
January 5, 2015
Jake White - the ferryman © Getty Images
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Monday Maul looks back at a weekend where tight-heads went down, Montpellier enjoyed a winning start under their new coach and the Premiership trialled some new technology.

Jake White - rugby's new 'traghettatore'

An article in The Times last week labelled new West Bromwich Albion head coach Tony Pulis one of England's equivalent of Italy's 'traghettatori' - the ferrymen. They are management figures drafted in midway through a season to save a club from relegation. At the end of the campaign, after successfully hauling them away from the precipice of demotion, they take leave and stay in the shadows until another new seemingly doomed challenge inevitably rears its troubled head.

It poses the question, just who is rugby's 'traghettatore'? Gary Gold was parachuted into the Falcons three campaigns ago to try and keep them afloat but they just failed in their mission but rugby teams usually wait until the end of the season to make coaching changes. Last season saw Nigel Davies lose his job at Gloucester with David Humphreys brought in but other than Sale's state of flux in the 2012-13 season where coaches were shoehorned into new roles it is an uncommon trait on these shores of late.

In France moves are made for coaches during the season with a view to them joining in the summer. Castres have already reportedly teed up Oyonnax's Chrisophe Urios as a replacement for Matthias Rolland while Toulon have lined up Diego Dominguez as Bernard Laporte's long-term replacement. But perhaps rugby's new 'traghettatore' is Jake White.

Montpellier's Alex Tulou eyes a gap in the Toulon defence, Montpellier v Toulon, Top 14, Altrad Stadium, January 3, 2015
Alex Tulou's try helped Montpellier to a key win © Getty Images
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After leaving the Sharks he was a gun for hire with eyes on the international scene and stepped into a consultancy role with Tonga. But when Montpellier's president Mohed Altrad made the call to move Fabien Galthie aside, they weighed up two options - ex-France boss Marc Lievremont or White. They felt the more assured pair of hands to grip their shirts and haul them up the table was White.

He made the perfect start on Saturday. In football, teams who bring in a new manager usually experience a period of revival with the new face a catalyst for improvement. It sometimes tails off but with White, their win over Toulon now gives Montpellier the platform to get their season back on track.

It was not pretty against Toulon and but for a couple of wayward kicks from the usually deadeye Leigh Halfpenny, it could have been a different story but Alex Tulou's try along with five points from Ben Lucas and six from Benoit Paillaugue saw them snatch a 16-12 triumph.

The scenes afterwards saw White initiated by slurping a beer from a boot. It was a promising start but it will be cast into the shadows like White at the end of the season unless they build on that win as the omnipotent Altrad highlighted.

"Jake White told the players to get back to basics. All week we practised what was produced in the game against Toulon," he said. "We rediscovered that fighting quality. We'd got to the end of a system and the players no longer wanted to play. We had to do something, even if I took my time to take a decision. We dominated this game, which will no doubt be a reference point for us."

Wales have strength in depth

Seeing a tight-head dislocate his shoulder causes coaches the world over to fight back the tears. They are usually the most costly player in the pack and the world-class ones are a rarity. For Wales, they suffered such a setback on Saturday. Scarlets' Rhodri Jones dislocated his shoulder against the Ospreys and looks set to miss the Six Nations.

The newly dual-contracted prop played in three of Wales' matches during the autumn series as a replacement but they have more cabs on the rank ready to step into his unfortunate place. The newly-shorn veteran Adam Jones played well at the weekend and is set for a Wales recall while their premier tight-head Samson Lee put in a performance for the ages against the Ospreys.

The same goes for their fly-half department. Rhys Priestland is widely expected to join Bath at the end of the season while Owen Williams seems at home in Leicester but they still have Rhys Patchell, Gareth Anscombe and Dan Biggar playing in Wales. If they were to cast their net into England Matthew Morgan would also come into the equation.

As the dual-contracts start to come into the Welsh rugby consciousness with increasing regularity, you expect the wealth of options at Warren Gatland's disposal to grow. While tight-head and fly-half are isolated positions, they are indicative of the depth Wales can boast.

Saracens push the boundaries

While they can sometimes be brash in the way they handle issues facing the game - for issues read the salary cap as their latest attempt to upset the natural order - Saracens should be applauded for their proactive take on concussion. It is an issue that will continue to cause the game difficulty, and rightly so, but Saracens' willingness to try the technology they sported against London Irish is admirable. The small patches behind the ear of some of their number monitored the impact forces and gave the coaches a reading on how much of a battering their players have taken. The hope is they will be able to take readings mid-match in the future. It is a step in the right direction.

Saints v Falcons showed why the cap fits

It was a match between the team pushing for the title and another who were earmarked as one who should be wary of the drop at the start of the season. To the layman it was the haves playing the have-nots. But Northampton and Newcastle served up a nine-try cracker. Tom Catterick played with wonderful assuredness at fly-half for the Falcons while Stephen Myler went about his business in his usually precise manner and brought up the impressive 2,000-point mark for the Saints. While London Welsh are cut adrift at the foot of the table the other 11 teams are close enough in standard they can cause each other difficulties on any day. It was the perfect illustration of why the salary cap is so important to the Aviva Premiership.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
Tom Hamilton is the Associate Editor of ESPNscrum.

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