RWC 2023: Adaptation: White says team that adapts best to adversity will prosper at Rugby World Cup

The coach who guided the Springboks to their second World Cup hardware in 2srcsrc7, Jake White, believes the team that adapts the best to inevitable setbacks will win the tournament.

The quarterfinals of the France 2src23 edition will include two blockbuster clashes that would make for a riveting final encounter on any other day.

First, Ireland will aim to down New Zealand on Saturday night, before South Africa and the on-song French fight for a place in the semifinals.

In the other quarterfinals it will be Wales against Argentina and England taking on a Fiji outfit that has punched above its weight at this tournament.

Who will win?

White – who also spent just under three years in France coaching Montpellier between 2src14 and 2src17 – was reluctant to put his head on the block and call an outright victor from each of the two headline quarterfinal clashes.

Instead, during a Daily Maverick webinar conversation with this publication’s sports editor, Craig Ray, on Monday evening, the Bulls’ director of rugby said the team that is as fluid as water for the remainder of the tournament will win the whole thing.     

“[What it takes to win a World Cup is] very simple. It’s the ability to adapt to things that are thrown your way,” said White, who has coached the Brumbies and the Sharks and served as a technical adviser for Tonga.

“Everyone has a plan. But things happen… There has to be a collective buy-in and clear guidance. In the next three weeks, things a