Not all is lost for Bulls

New Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer may be cleaning out at Loftus Versfeld to fill up the national team's backroom staff, but all is not lost for the Bulls.

At a media conference in Pretoria on Sunday - where it was revealed that Rassie Erasmus had been appointed as General Manager: High Performance teams and will as such be seconded to Meyer's Boks when they are in camp - it was confirmed that four key members of the Bulls' management staff are set to move on.

SARU confirmed they have entered into formal negotiations with Bulls forwards coach Johann van Graan, former Springbok fullback and Blue Bulls backline coach Ricardo Loubscher, Bulls defence coach John McFarland and Bulls conditioning coach Basil Carzis.

However, the rider is that they will remain with the Bulls to the end of the current Super Rugby season.

Although they will join up with Meyer for the three-Test series against England in June, the Bulls will have time to find suitable replacements ahead of the Currie Cup season - which gets underway in August only.

The quartet will be with the Bulls till June and return for the final weeks of the Super Rugby season in July.

SARU are also determined to secure the services of Cheetahs conditioning coach Niel du Plessis, former Springbok flyhalf and Paarl Gymnasium Director of Sport Louis Koen, former French prop Pieter de Villiers and Ian Schwartz, High Performance Manager of the Blue Bulls.

Like the members of the Bulls squad, the others will be allowed to remain with their franchises till the end of the current season.

Meyer, asked about the number of Pretoria-based members in his coaching team, rejected the suggestion that he had targeted mainly Bulls staff because of his familiarity with the union where he served as a successful Super Rugby and Currie Cup coach.

"It will be unfair [to call it a Bulls management team]," Meyer told the media briefing.

"The first person I called when I got the position was Rassie, and I was also in negotiations with Allister [Coetzee, the Stormers head coach], and those are probably the two most successful guys from the Stormers.

"If you look at the entire management team of about 20 people, only five are from the Bulls.

"My top priority is to do what is best for South African rugby... we had to choose the best support staff we could get and these are the guys I am comfortable with and who I believe we can win the Rugby World Cup with."

* Meanwhile, much uncertainty remains over the possible involvement of legendry Bok lock Victor Matfield, despite weekend media reports suggesting he would come out of retirement to be a 'short-term' captain for the June Tests.

Meyer was at his diplomatic best when he said Matfield would travel around the country to help line-out jumpers, suggesting he could be used as a consultant.

However, the Bok mentor stopped short of completely ruling out the return of Matfield to the playing field as captain against England.

"At this stage we're speaking to every player and every ex-player," Meyer told the media.

"I'm very worried about the injuries at the moment and we have a bit of a crisis at lock at the moment.

"Nothing has been finalised but we're keeping all the options open."