As White prepares for his first match as a Super Rugby coach in his home town of Cape Town, this is the rugby and life transformation even White never thought was possible after the World Cup-winning coach left the Springboks job.

The Brumbies will aim to continue their undefeated start to the season when they play the Stormers at Newlands on Sunday morning.

His family and close friends will be in the crowd.

He'll be coaching against good mate Allister Coetzee and players he groomed as Springboks representatives.

But being home in Cape Town has made White realise his own transformation in the past two years.

''When I was with the Boks, I instilled all the things - team first, work ethic, preparation, fitness - and then we won the World Cup [in 2007],'' White said. ''For three years after that all the things I thought were important, I thought were nonsense. I was disillusioned.

''I spent four years working for something that would be this dream, but it wasn't.

''Then I joined the Brumbies and all the things I thought were important in rugby are still there, the disillusionment is gone.

''But it's taken me another country and another team to reaffirm that … I had doubts, but I'm glad they're now gone.''

It was almost two years ago when, after Andy Friend was sacked, White was announced as the Brumbies coach until the end of 2015.

The announcement came while the Brumbies were on their 2011 tour of South Africa.

At the time, White sat in a cafe in Newlands and detailed his plans to recapture success with the Brumbies.

White's strict approach to everything on and off the field is starting to show signs of that success.

If the Brumbies beat the Stormers, it will be just the second time in the club's history that it has been undefeated after the first five games of the season.

White has not only overhauled the Brumbies, he's doing the same with himself.

At the start of the year he made a decision to get fit for his 50th birthday. He cut carbohydrates, caffeine and sugar from his diet.

Since January he's lost 16 kilograms. His friends joke his hair has not only got its colour back, but there's more of it.

On the two-week tour of South Africa, White has been buoyed by an opportunity to spend more time with eldest son Clinton, who still studies in Cape Town.

His youngest son Wesley was away on a schoolboy rugby tour and didn't get a chance to join the Brumbies in camp.

''This was a year I felt I needed to take a step up [personally],'' White said.

''I think it's no coincidence the team is now gelling because I'm a lot more alert and aware than I have been.

''I think it is a bit like rugby mirrors my life … if the boys are happy, their partners are happy and the club is happy there's no reason you shouldn't get results.

''I started questioning the things I thought were non-negotiable. I'm loving the fact that the things I thought were important are working.

''We haven't done anything yet, but we're on the road.

''It's going to be exciting at Newlands, I know people here, my kids are here.''

White knows the Brumbies are ahead of the scheduled four-year rebuilding plan he started to put in place in April 2011. Last year the unheralded team got within one point of the finals.

This year the Brumbies have set a Super Rugby record for the most consecutive wins away from home.

Brumbies skipper Ben Mowen said White set the bar high.

''He surrounds himself with people who challenge him and his ideals,'' Mowen said.

''He's a guy who expects a lot from his players, but delivers a lot himself and you can see in the way we play - it's for each other.

''Jake said to me this side feels like a family and that's what great Brumbies teams of the past have had. Jake had a clear idea of how he wanted to create that … I don't know why [South Africa] gave him up, but we're not giving him back.''