Curtain coming down on coach?

Most South Africans will be relieved with the curtain coming down on the Springboks’ season in Cardiff tomorrow. Despite all the promises of a new brotherhood, a sound team culture and continuity, the performances have been very average and in some cases well below the high standard a Springbok is supposed to set.

There has been a slight revival in the wins over France and Italy, albeit away from home, but in all honesty, the standard produced was pretty average.

At least there had been some kind of retaliation after the Boks were whipped 38-3 in the opening tour match against Ireland.

Then to hear Bok coach Allister Coetzee saying he is happy with where the team are is simply astounding, seeing that only seven wins were achieved in 12 games and a humiliating 57-0 loss to New Zealand and the record loss in Dublin are among the performances of this year.

Again the Boks failed to make any inroads in the Rugby Championships with only two wins achieved and both against Argentina, while both games against New Zealand were lost and both against Australia drawn.

With only two years to go to the next World Cup in Japan, there has been little to smile about and in fact the last time the Boks played decent rugby was way back in June when France were whipped 3-0, all three wins achieved by a points margin of 22 or more.

There were all the promises of a new dawn but since then everything has gone into reverse and even the narrow 25-24 defeat to the All Blacks at Newlands was a hollow one with the Kiwis not highly motivated after already wrapping up the Rugby Championship.

Coetzee played down any rumours this week that tomorrow’s game against Wales might be his last, stressing that he is definitely not joining a Japanese club next year, but rather in 2019 and in charge of the World Cup squad.

There have even been talks this week that it might be time that the Boks get coached by a Kiwi because all over the world all the innovation and creativity has emerged where a New Zealander is involved.

Warren Gatland, Robbie Deans and Joe Schmidt serve as prime examples.

Will tomorrow then be Coetzee’s 25th and last Test in charge?

Most probably.