The pros and cons of keeping Coetzee

the prescriptions that go with it and the pressures involved. Coetzee has also invested in certain young players and he will hope they come good this year having gone through the rigours of 2016 – and he’s likely to have more fit men to pick from this year. There’s a new core and they will be better off for it this year with Coetzee leading them. We cannot get away from the fact the Boks under Coetzee in 2016 were diabolical. They won four Tests out of 12 and also drew with the Barbarians. There were embarrassing defeats, against Ireland, Argentina and Italy and beatings from the All Blacks, among others.

One can say without hesitation the Boks took several steps backwards in 2016. They didn’t look like a side that knew what they were doing half the time and Coetzee simply couldn’t shake off the conservative tag that has been pinned on him since his coaching days in the Western Cape.

More than once last year, Coetzee’s selections were questioned. First, he picked a captain (Adriaan Strauss) he supposedly knew would be hanging up his boots at year’s end – why, why, why? – and then when Strauss failed to fire, Coetzee wasn’t prepared to change him for a new leader and hooker, be it Bongi Mbonambi or Malcolm Marx. There was never certainty around the props and loose forwards, while the centres he picked most of the time played on reputation rather than form. A player like Willie le Roux was axed and then recalled and it seemed Coetzee was never sure about his choices.

One has to ask what Saru think will be different by keeping Coetzee on for another year or series. Is the national team actually going to show progress and development – improvement, if you like – in 2017 with the same coach and major decision-maker in charge? What is going to be different? He will, after all, largely pick the same players – or not? – and is his game-plan going to change to be more dynamic and attackminded? And having backed certain assistants in 2016, what’s to say they will be better off a year on? The reality is the Boks showed no signs of being a world force last year and there’s no indication anything will be different in 2017.