White playing down Montpellier Top 14 title hopes

White playing down Montpellier Top 14 title hopes

PARIS - Jake White was keeping calm despite his Montpellier side winning a seventh straight Top 14 match on Sunday.

Montpellier's head coach Jake White, pictured on March 26, 2016, has overseen a strong showing in this Top 14 campaign

The 26-20 victory at struggling champions Stade Francais -- Montpellier's first win in the capital against Stade in the Top 14 era -- propelled the team into second, seven points behind leaders Clermont.

But crucially, they are coming into form at just the right time and look a good bet for a top two finish in the regular season which would earn them a bye straight into the play-off semi-finals.

On top of that, they beat Sale 25-19 last weekend to progress into the European Challenge Cup semi-finals.

"I think everyone understands that this competition (the Top 14) is all about momentum," said White when asked about Montpellier's title hopes.

"It's not different to any other competition in the world. If you look at Stade Francais last year, when it counted towards the end of the year, even though people didn't give them a chance, they won the title.

"I'm enjoying it, I'm enjoying that the group is enjoying it. Is there a title (at the end of the road)? I think that we have to take one step at a time and I know that coaches always say that but we've won nothing.

"We've never won anything in Montpellier. So slowly, slowly we need to grow as a team.

"That's our job -- the coaches -- to make sure that we're humble and don't get ahead of ourselves."

White, who led South Africa to the World Cup in France in 2007, joined Montpellier on December 30, 2014 after Fabian Galthie was sidelined for a string of poor results.

He has steadied the ship since then and overseen a strong showing in this campaign, helped in no small part by having 13 of his countrymen on the squad roster.

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