Jan de Koning - Rugby365

Cape Town - Former Springbok Braam van Straaten is set to become the Wallabies' full-time kicking coach.

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Following two brief stints with Australia during their recently completed Tri-Nations visit to South Africa, the former Bok kicker impressed the Australians so much that they offered him a full-time contract.

"I will fly to Sydney for 10 days in October and it looks like I will sign a contract till after the Rugby World Cup in 2011," Van Straaten said on Monday.

The offer came in the wake of the Wallabies' dramatic last-minute 41-39 win over the Bok in Bloemfontein at the weekend - with a Kurtley Beale penalty consigning South Africa to the wooden spoon in the Tri-Nations and Australia winning the Mandela Plate.

Van Straaten, capped 21 times for the Boks between June 1999 and November 2001, spoke enthusiastically about the willingness of the Wallabies to learn from an 'expert'.

"Is was involved with the Wallaby team in Cape Town for three days and also in Durban for two days," he said of the Australian visit in the past fortnight.

Van Straaten was proud to have help turn around Australia's kicking woes - which saw them loose a Test to England in June when Matt Giteau had a goal-kicking success rated of barely 30 percent and missed a sitter from in front of the posts that could have won them the Test.

The fallout of that performance was enormous, with Wallaby coach Robbie Deans threatening to axe Giteau as chief goal-kicker and even subjected all his kickers to a series of trials at training.

However, the turnaround in the Australians' kicking fortunes has been as dramatic as that loss was in June.

"Matt Giteau hasn't missed a single kick at goal in the last two Tests and then there was that last kick of Kurtley Beale, which was an exceptional kick," Van Straaten said of his stint with the Wallabies.

This will be the 38-year-old Van Straaten's first full-time contract at international level.

"I have done a lot of kicking consultancy with various unions, as well as universities in the Varsity Cup," he said.

Van Straaten, who played 11 of his Tests at flyhalf, six at centre and five off the bench, scored two tries, but it was his goal-kicking, which saw him score 222 points in the Green and Gold, that earned him most of his fame.