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Cape Town - Springbok coach Allister Coetzee says he takes full responsibility for what has been a disastrous year.
The Boks under Coetzee won just four of their 12 Tests in 2016, including a northern hemisphere tour that saw them lose all three official Tests.
It has resulted in an irate rugby public in South Africa, and Coetzee is under massive pressure.
Whether or not he will be sacked when he meets with SA Rugby management on December 9 remains to be seen, but he has already said that he will not be resigning.
Still, upon the squad's arrival from their European tour in Johannesburg on Monday, Coetzee did at least put his hand up in accepting the blame.
"As a group - coaching staff and players - we have really let ourselves down, our organisation down and our country down," he told reporters.
"Therefore I take full responsibility for what has happened on the field. The SA Rugby administrators and I will be in discussions, obviously, and we will do a full review of this year."
Coetzee added that he had chatted to the players following Saturday's loss to Wales, and that there was a collective understanding that the Boks had been nowhere near good enough this year.
"We had a hard chat about rugby and South African rugby and the future of the Springboks and we agree that we have to look at ourselves, first and foremost, about the standards that haven't been up to scratch and good enough to compete at international level," Coetzee said.
