Publications
Partners
Cape Town - South African Rugby Union (SARU) president Oregan Hoskins is reluctant to admit that Allister Coetzee will be the next Springbok coach.
READ: Unions not doing their bit for transformation - SARU
Hoskins addressed journalists at SARU House in Plattekloof near Cape Town on Friday where he denied that Coetzee had already been appointed as Heyneke Meyer’s successor.
Meyer on Thursday announced that he will not re-apply for his position when his contract expires at the end of the year.
While Sport24 has reason to believe that Coetzee - a former Stormers coach - will be Meyer’s successor, Hoskins says talks of the new coach is premature.
“It will be a robust, transparent process to get a new coach. I think we must not be hasty, we must not rush into it,” said Hoskins.
“I’ve seen all the billboards that Allister Coetzee has been appointed. You must tell me where you got that from, please, because I don’t know about it. You guys know more than I do,” he quipped.
SARU’s General Council was set to meet on Friday, December 11 to discuss Meyer’s future as Bok coach, but that meeting will now be to find a suitable replacement.
Hoskins is even open to the possibility of a foreign coach being at the helm of the Springboks.
“A foreign coach is definitely an option,” he said. “I think it is accepted global practice now for nations to appoint foreign coaches when they feel it is necessary and a foreign coach is the best man for the job. Of the 20 teams at the World Cup, 13 of them had foreign coaches. So it would be silly to rule out the possibility of contracting a foreign coach. It would be silly to say no to it.”
This is an unlikely scenario though, given the fact that the new coach would have transformation targets as his main objective - something a foreign coach would perhaps struggle to fully buy into.
"Whoever wants to apply for the job needs to know that transformation is going to be on top of his agenda, or else he shouldn’t apply," Hoskins stressed.
"We as an organisation are going to have to be much, much harder than we’ve ever been. We don’t have another opportunity. We’ve signed an agreement with the sports governing body in the country (SASCOC) and the ministry and we believe in it. So as a sport we need to go forward with that in mind."
Given the above-mentioned guidelines the new coach would have to adhere to, it’s hard to see Coetzee not getting the job...
