Why has it gone wrong for Coetzee?

8 4 He was assistant coach to Jake White’s 2007 World Cup-winning team. As Western Province and Stormers head coach he performed well in the Currie Cup and Super Rugby tournaments.

“Allister’s biggest challenge is to find the right balance in his team,” Williams believes. “He wants to concentrate on ball handling but it’s hard for players who are used to kicking the ball to get used to a new strategy.”

Commentator and former Bok player Ashwin Willemse says Coetzee couldn’t establish a core group of players. Coetzee wasn’t given the chance to choose his players and he should have fought for that right, Boshoff believes.

He should also have insisted on at least a year without the pressure of having to win, giving him time to groom young players who have the necessary skills to play innovative rugby.

“Now out of sheer desperation he goes and gets old men like Bryan Habana to come back from overseas,” Boshoff says.

Coetzee fell back on the worn-out pattern of large, strong players who storm at their opposite numbers with no real plan, he adds.

Willemse finds it frightening that Coetzee as head coach works with a group of unknown assistant coaches.

And in the Test against Italy nine Boks who play overseas were included in the team – they spend 11 months of the year playing the game so it stands to reason they’re exhausted and at risk of injury.