South Africa faces its biggest crisis since readmission to international rugby just a year after finishing third at the World Cup as the side’s spiralling decline was confirmed with a 27-13 defeat to Wales on Saturday.
The Springboks looked disorganised, rudderless and devoid of the physical stature that had the side crowned world champions in 1995 and 2007 as they completed a sweep of Test defeats on their European tour.
Coach Allister Coetzee has now presided over the worst year in the history of the side with a record eight defeats from 12 Tests and, in the court of public opinion at least, has already been sentenced to an embarrassing early exit from the job.
His position, and a number of other burning issues blamed for this year’s dismal performances, will be discussed by South African Rugby (SARU) when their all-powerful general council meets on December 9, according to a statement from the union.
His future looks all the bleaker after SARU president Mark Alexander admitted the Springboks had “collectively let down our supporters, our commercial partners and our broadcast partner”.
It is that view which will weigh heaviest on future decisions as the revenues that flow into the South African game, whether through commercial rights or filling stadiums, are dependant on a winning side.
Alexander said SARU would wait on a report from Coetzee and his staff before taking any decisions but added: “I can assure our supporters and stakeholders that if tough decisions have to be made we will not shy away from making them.”
One of the most vexing questions is how to manage the outflow of players from the domestic game to big-money contracts in Europe.
Coetzee, however, feels it is unfair to lay the blame squarely on his shoulders, though he has been unable to come up with answers to the side’s deep-rooted problems.
“We’ve got to understand that it’s not just one person that can take responsibility for that,” Coetzee told the BBC. “If I’m solely held responsible for that, then I will walk away.”
SARU are also planning to unveil structural changes to the domestic game but Alexander admits that first they needed to fix their international brand.
“Our number one priority is a turnaround strategy for the Springbok team and that will be looked at immediately and decisively,” he said.
Rugby Tragic
Guest
It will biltongbek... it will... time though ... when is the big question
superba
Guest
Hi Leon At only 52yrs of age you could certainly add value to this squad . Age is no barrier. But just one other thing is . The colour of your integument.
Leon in Qld
Guest
Firstly as an ex South African living in Qld I always look forward to watching the Boks however now I still look forward to watching them but cannot ignore the feeling of will they win? Where has the fight, the dog in the players gone? The coach yes is partly to blame but the players bring it on, on the field. We forget that the rest of the world has improved massively but we cannot ignore the fact that we have some players in this current squad that even I at 52 could replace. A captain who stated he is retiring from the game after the tour why take him rather take a new young energetic team and bleed them as well as a new captain. They could not have played any worse than the current team. Take a leaf out of the Aussie crickets team before the third test in Adelaide, took a risk, cleaned the team out replaced with youth and yes WON. As an ex coach and player myself for almost 40 years I would put my hand up for the coaching role, unfortunately so would I guess around 50 million others. Give me a call should you not find the correct coach as their are only 2 types of coaches? Those that are fired and those that are about to be fired is a tough job. Regards Leon in Aussie.
There is nothing to ponder, nothing will change.