Vodacom Bulls director of rugby Jake White has admitted that he would like to bring Fourie du Preez in as a consultant for the team’s scrumhalves.
In the previous episode of the ‘No Holds Barred’ series on the Bulls app, White poured cold water on any suggestion that former players could return to the Bulls purely on the basis of their legendary status, adding that players would need to have a genuine desire to go into coaching on a full-time basis if they want to be involved.
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This came after rumours, following White’s appointment as the Bulls new director of rugby in March, that ex-players such as Du Preez and Victor Matfield may return to the team in official coaching roles.
However, in episode six of the series, White was asked whether he would be bringing specialists in to help consult with the team. He used the opportunity to clarify that he was interested in bringing Du Preez in to assist the team’s senior and junior scrumhalves.
‘What has happened in professional sport, not just in rugby, consultants with specialised skills that can add value to the makeup of the team,’ White said. ‘We use Henning Gericke as a mental coach. So, yes, consultants are important. [South African vision coach] Sherylle Calder, not only by myself at the World Cup, she was used by England in the last World Cup. So there is a definite role for specialists in certain fields.
‘Will I be using them? Of course I will. I will be using specialists who I think are important. Consultants that I think are important.
‘One guy that comes to mind is Fourie du Preez. I think that Fourie, even though he doesn’t want to coach, can play a massive role as a consultant to imparting his knowledge to guys like Ivan [van Zyl] and Embrose [Papier] and maybe even the U21 scrumhalves we have in our system.
‘I think he is a specialist in that he is fantastic at what he did. He understands that he has massive amounts of intellectual property. Using a consultant like Fourie will be massive and without giving too much away, he is definitely somebody who I am going to be talking to.’
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Photo: https://www.sarugbymag.co.za/white-du-preez-bulls/
