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Cape Town - Springbok coach Allister Coetzee remains adamant he will not resign from his post, despite a shambolic two-year term at the helm.
READ: Bok ratings: Shot down in the skies!
Coetzee oversaw yet another defeat on Saturday - this time a 24-22 defeat to Wales in Cardiff - to bring a close to his second year in charge.
Coetzee's cumulative record now reads: Played 25, won 11, lost 12, drawn 2, for a win percentage of a mere 44%.
It makes sense to compare Coetzee's first two years in the job to his three most recent predecessors.
Heyneke Meyer: Played 24, won 17, lost 5, drew 2, for a win percentage of 71%
Peter de Villiers: Played 25, won 17, lost 8, for a win percentage of 68%
Jake White: Played 25, won 17, lost 7, drew 1, for a win percentage of 68%
It's therefore clear South African rugby has gone backwards at an alarming - and embarrassing - rate of knots in recent times.
Coetzee's seven victories in 2017 came against without question the weakest France side in recent memory, now ranked ninth in the World Rugby rankings (4); Argentina, who have hit rock bottom in recent times having incredibly won only 8 off their 27 Tests since the last World Cup (2); and Italy, ranked 14th in the world (1).
But Coetzee remains defiant that he's on the right path and that he will see out his contract which expires after the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
Concerned Springbok supporters would therefore no doubt have heard with horror that Coetzee has no plans to vacate his post in his post Cardiff Test press conference.
"I'm signed on until 2019," Coetzee said.
"That's what my contract says.
"The team has really grown. It’s a really healthy team environment.
"They are hurting at the moment. They feel that they let themselves down and the country down. You can only feel like that if you have a good team environment.
"That wasn't the case last year. Last year was a fiasco. Definitely a fiasco," he added.
SA Rugby will conduct a full review of the season in the coming weeks and at their Annual General Council on Wednesday, December 13 they are widely expected to draw the curtain on the Coetzee era and show him the door.
