Jake White
South African rugby union footballer and coach
Jacob Charles White (born 13 December 1963 as Jacob Westerduin) is a professional rugby union coach and former coach of the South African national team – the Springboks – whom he coached to victory in 2007 Rugby World Cup and the 2004 Tri Nations. White also coached the Under-21 Springbok side to victory in the Under-21 World Cup in 2002. He was coach of the Brumbies in the Super Rugby from 2012, but resigned with two years remaining on his contract in 2013 to return to South Africa. On returning to South Africa, he coached the Sharks for a single season, explaining he wanted to seek international opportunities. This arose in a technical role with the Tongan national team. After assisting Tonga in their 3 Test European Tour in 2014, White was announced as Montpellier's new boss, overseeing all coaching aspects for the club.
On 24 October 2011, he was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame, alongside other World Cup-winning head coaches and captains through the 2007 World Cup.
Coaching resume up to 2004
Jake White was born in Johannesburg and attended Jeppe High School for Boys where he played in the First XV. He changed his surname to White when he was a teenager after his mother remarried. He began his coaching career as a high school rugby coach at Parktown Boys' High School's First XV before returning to his old school as a teacher and coach of the school's First XV. White's success with the school team resulted in him being appointed as provincial schools coach. He coached various under-19 and under-21 sides before assisting Springbok squad preparations by compiling video analysis for them.
The public source identifies “Jake White” as south African rugby union footballer and coach. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Jake, White and South.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1649587. VIAF identifies the subject as 38845951. The Library of Congress control number is n2008029963. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1963, 2007, 2004 and 2002.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jake White” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.