White rules out move to Australia or Wales

The former South Africa coach Jake White is not interested in taking charge of either Australia or Wales, but is instead set on taking six months out of the game. However, with the future of the England head coach, Brian Ashton, up in the air there still remains some possibility that a vacant England job could force a change of plans.

White, who confirmed his departure as coach of the World Cup-winning Springboks on Wednesday, has been linked to a host of possible roles. The Australian Rugby Union revealed this week that White had been in contact about the vacancy left by John Connolly's departure, while he has also been named as a possible replacement for the former Wales coach Gareth Jenkins

Craig Livingstone, White's agent, said yesterday: "Jake's made no decision on his future, but I can confirm he's definitely not applying for the Wallabies job. He's also unlikely to pursue a career with Wales.

"The Bok coaching matter has now been finalised and sorted out and all Jake wants to do now is take some time out. Jake's book is coming out in a few weeks' time and he'll be busy with that for a while yet. It'll be at least six months before he makes any decision on his future."

The former Scotland rugby union coach Matt Williams claims racial prejudices made his job impossible and believes the same applied in football for Berti Vogts. The Australian became Scotland's first overseas coach when he accepted the challenge in December 2003. However, a poor run of results resulted in Williams being dismissed in April 2005.

The former Leinster coach said: "The thing I didn't know was Berti Vogts was a German coaching the football team, and I didn't realise the massive antipathy towards him. It was wrongly placed because it was based on racial grounds and when he left that got placed on me. It didn't really matter if I was any good or not – I wasn't a Scot. So that whole racial thing was pretty hard to accept."