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Ben White signed with Toulon in the summer of 2023. After two years, how has the Scotland scrum-half adapted to life in France?
White’s career
White started his senior career at Leicester Tigers and played at Welford Road for 6 years. He was the youngest player to play for the club in the Premiership.
Ahead of the 2021-22 season, White joined London Irish and played two seasons at the club, which is now defunct as Irish fell into financial ruin.
He then decided to move to France’s Top 14. Toulon already had fellow scrum-half Baptiste Serin, who has remained at the club.
White has been playing for Scotland since 2022, having switched allegiance after playing for England U20s. His Six Nations history includes 18 matches and 30 points (6 tries).
Toulon
At the time of White’s arrival in France, Toulon head coach Pierre Mignoni praised the player’s “speed, his technical quality and his playing intelligence”.
White was reportedly seeking to get to know more about the language and culture and develop more as a player. Half a year later, he was selected for Scotland’s Six Nations squad.
In the 2023-24 season White played 19 matches for Toulon, scoring 5 points. In early 2024, he announced a contract extension with Toulon until 2026. He said he felt great at the club, noting: “The coaches are great, the players and the supporters are incredible.”
Toulon are having a strong season in 2025, with White serving as a regular starter. The club are battling Toulouse, Bordeaux Bègles, and Bayonne near the top of the table. Toulouse are having an outstanding season; the odds for sports bets suggest they are clear favourites for the title. White’s Toulon are relative outsiders at around 9.00 (8/1).
Why did White choose Scotland over England?
During an international break in 2021 while White was playing his first season at Irish, he received a text from Scotland’s lead analyst, Gavin Vaughan. Their messages led to a phone call with head coach Gregor Townsend.
In early 2024, White spoke to The Telegraph about his conversation with Townsend. The coach gave him feedback on both his strengths and areas for improvement and, over the course of the following fortnight, Townsend continued the dialogue by sending him game clips via WhatsApp. White was struck by Townsend’s meticulous approach, noting how he would point out specific moments, praising certain phases but also challenging White’s decisions (such as questioning his hesitation at a ruck and probing what he had been observing).
White admitted he hadn’t expected that level of detailed coaching. It made him realize the need for total focus and precision in every aspect of his game, from passing and kicking to his positioning off the ball.
Vaughan and Townsend have collaborated a few times over the years. When Vaughan was appointed in 2021, he called the role a lifelong ambition fulfilled and described it as “a dream come true” and “the pinnacle, really”.
Townsend has been coaching Scotland since 2017 after spending five years at Glasgow Warriors. In the 2014-15 season Glasgow won every one of their home games in the Pro 12. Townsend has a stacked trophy cabinet, with multiple Calcutta Cups, Auld Alliance Trophies, Hopetoun Cups, Douglas Horn Trophies, Doddie Weir Cups, and Cuttitta Cups (including 2025 titles in the latter two).
White versus England
When White was asked by The Telegraph whether he feels more emotion playing against England, he answered, “I’ll be honest – not really. The emotion has to be there for every Test match.” He said that if he was to walk on the field and “look out at the crowd and up at the big lights and think, ‘What am I doing here?’” he’d be “lost at sea”.
White credited mental skills coach Aaron Walsh, along with Mike Roberts, who he worked with at London Irish, for helping him to “find the balance between, they call it, the red and the blue (…) that balance between being calm and controlled in these moments, being on the edge with your aggression but also being clear.”