Coetzee the new Bok coach?

rugby365 has reliably learnt that Heyneke Meyer has lost the support of the majority of South Africa's provincial unions and will be replaced at the General Council meeting of the South African Rugby Union on December 11.

SARU has already postponed, by a week, to 11 December, their General Council meeting. It will be proceeded by a meeting of the Executive Council on 9 December.

Coetzee has an exit clause in his contract with Kobelco Steelers - the club he coaches in the Japanese Top League.

Bok team manager Ian Schwartz, who is employed as a permanent staff member of SARU, has denied the suggestion that he will fly to Japan to speak to the former Bok assistant coach and Stormers coach, Coetzee, to take over the national team.

Schwartz, speaking to rugby365, said he was "on holiday" on the West Coast.

"I am not involved in any dealings surrounding the position of the Springbok coach," said Schwartz, a close confidant of Meyer since his days at the Bulls and Blue Bulls.

He added that if there was to be any negotiations with any coaching candidates involving the Bok team it would be done by "more senior" staff members at SARU.

It is uncertain at this stage what will happen to the rest of Meyer's coaching staff - which include Ricardo Loubscher (backline), Johann van Graan (forwards), Pieter de Villiers (scrum) John McFarland (defence) and Basil Carzis (conditioning).

It is known that Van Graan has thrown his name into the Stormers coaching hat - a list that also includes John Mitchell (the apparently runaway leader in that race), John Dobson, Brendan Venter, Gert Smal, Robbie Fleck, Paul Treu, Frans Ludeke and Jerome Paarwater.

The Stormers and Southern Kings are the only franchises who have not finalised their coaching set-ups for 2016.

However, the Kings will be run by SARU - which means the national body's mobi unit is likely to fill the coaching position in Port Elizabeth.

The biggest gripe against Meyer has been that the Springboks have not progressed, but rather regressed, in the past four years.

There are also issues surrounding transformation that some of the political animals in the SARU structures.

In a recent poll on rugby365 newly appointed England coach Eddie Jones beat off all challengers as the readers' choice of a new Bok coach - with 19.03 percent of the votes.

However, he is out of the running.

Coetzee, the man that will tick SARU's transformation box (like Peter de Villiers did in 2008), came in seventh with just 3.87 percent of the votes.

Others high on the readers' wishlist include Nick Mallett (18.22 percent, second), Meyer (13.7 percent, third), Johan Ackermann (12.3 percent, fourth) and John Mitchell (5.97 percent, fifth).

By Jan de Koning

@rugby365com