Uruguay’s stunning 30-27 victory over Fiji on Wednesday was the latest entry on high performance coach Craig White’s outstanding CV.
And the 49-year-old from Wigan says that it ranks alongside anything he achieved with Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards during his days at the elite end of professional rugby with Wales and Wasps in the noughties.
Then he laid the foundations for back-to-back Six Nations titles, Heineken Cup and Premiership glory, plus making two tours with the Lons.
Speaking to The Rugby Paper the morning after Uruguay confounded all pre-match predictions, he said: “Wasps turned around English rugby and set systems and structures that everyone copied so that was really good at the time, but this is just incredible and is definitely equally as good as anything I’ve experienced in my career.”
White has worked with Uruguay for the past year as a World Rugby-funded consultant and his impact has been phenomenal.
From the nadir of last year’s European tour in which they conceded 68 points to Fiji and lost to Ulster and Cardiff Blues; the South Americans have now beaten a side ranked nine places above them in the world. To put it into context, Japan were ten places behind South Africa when they pulled off ‘the Brighton Miracle’ in 2015.
A new sense of self-belief and, perhaps more surprisingly, a more modern approach to masculinity are two of the core reasons cited by White for the turnaround in fortunes.
In an environment far removed from the macho world in which burly No.8 Diego Ormaechea thrived in leading his team to their first-ever victory in 1999, his sons, Agustin and Juan Diego, are part of an enlightened Los Teros set-up.
Captain Juan Manuel Gaminara couldn’t hold back the tears in his post-match interview and emotional outpourings have become the norm under White, with players encouraged to be in touch with their feelings.
“I went on the European tour with the team last year and they were terrible, absolutely terrible, but it was a turning point from a mental and physical perspective,” White said.
“They felt a lot of shame and a lot of pain and that was the start of it.
“Initially, it was about getting them clear in their minds about why they were going to a World Cup and we asked them to sum up their purpose in one sentence. The sentence the players came up with was, ‘we want to shock the world’.
“From the outside, that may only sound like words but underpinning that was a series of team building events and a lot of work on self-belief.
“The staff have all bought into it and head coach Esteban Meneses has been great to work with. We’ve created an environment where they feel important, where there is absolutely no hiding place and we constantly hold them accountable.
“Within that area of self-belief and cultivating standards and accountability, we also did a lot of work in pre-season around love and vulnerability.
“I spoke to them about the two sides of love, one of which is the fluffy side of high fiving your team-mate and things like that, and there is an absolute abundance of that in Uruguay.
“But what I felt was missing was the other side of love that says, ‘I’m your mate and I love you, but I’m going to look you in the eye and if you’ve dropped standards, I’m going to f*** you up.
“We had a lot of deep inner sharing moments, talking about life and what we are grateful for. In one session someone spoke about overcoming cancer and guys were in tears. It really bonded us together.
“I wouldn’t have said that sort of stuff eight years ago,” White admitted, “but the world and the world of sport is constantly evolving and all the talk about men’s mental health is opening things up.
“The connection between the players is incredible, I’ve never experienced so much of a feeling of family and friendship as I have with this Uruguay team.”
Suddenly, Uruguay, a country with fewer than 6,000 registered players and only 28 rugby clubs, are looking at the possibility of direct qualification for the next tournament in France in 2023.
JON NEWCOMBE
