World Cup-winning coach Jake White looks set to join Saracens in their bid to lift the Premiership crown.

Director of rugby Eddie Jones has been in discussions with White, who he worked with when South Africa won international rugby’s greatest prize last year.

Jones was technical advisor for White’s Springboks and Saracens’ Australian boss has confirmed he hopes to bring his friend in.

He said: “We have had discussions and we are trying to work on it. Hopefully we will get him here in for a week in November and then a couple of times more.

“It is a similar job to what I did for him, just come in and see what we are doing and where we can improve.

“He has won a World Cup and there are not too many in the game that have done that. He is a good defensive coach and has a good eye for talent.”

Next week Jones also welcomes three new southern-hemisphere players.

If White does come on board, he will be joined by his World-Cup-winning flanker Wikus Van Heerden, who will be playing for South African side Blue Bulls in the Currie Cup final this weekend.

He will be going up against another one of Sarries new signings 22-year-old South African Brad Barritt, who will be playing for The Sharks.

Both players will join up with the Saracens’ squad on Tuesday after the game.

The third newcomer Ben Jacobs has already arrived from New South Wales Waratahs, although Saturday’s game at home to Northampton has come too early for the 26-year-old centre.

Jones said: “All three of these guys will be very important as we have nine players going away on international duty soon.

“They will add depth and quality to the squad. All three are good players.”

Northampton travel to Vicarage Road in EDF Energy Cup on the back of three straight victories.

But when the Saints visited in the Premiership earlier in the season, Saracens won 26-12 thanks to tries from Rodd Penney and Michael Owen.

But Jones warned: “They are hard in the tackle and defensively they are hard. They are also good going forward; they have scored over 100 points in their last two games so they will come expecting to do well.”

The Sarries boss believes the EDF Energy Cup should be made into a predominately Under-23s competition.

And once again he will stick to his policy of giving the youngsters a run out, despite losing to Scarlets 26-17 in the first round.

Jones said: “We will be playing some of the kids, probably a few who featured in the last game wont be playing, but you can expect guys like Alex Goode, Andy Saull and Noah Cato to feature in the game.

“We have got to build the depth in the squad. We have a group of players who have done well but we need the rest to be as good so we have multiple options.”

One man who definitely won’t be playing is New Zealander Chris Jack, who was ruled out for six to eight weeks with knee ligament damage.