I’m really keen to represent my country. I expect clarity some time next week

the backdrop of a 44% win percentage from 25 tests.

SA Rugby somehow came by the means to re-hire Rassie Erasmus as their director of rugby, and the former Bok flank is touted to take charge of the stricken SAS Springbok which now falls under his remit. Coetzee’s successor will have limited powers.

Defence guru Jacques Nienaber and scrum doctor Pieter de Villiers are likely to be part of the new coaching staff.

Franco Smith may still have a role to play if he can agree terms. “I’m really keen to represent my country. I expect clarity on the matter some time next week,” said Smith.

With Coetzee gone, forwards coach Matthew Proudfoot’s position is precarious.

Although Erasmus will now have the biggest say in shaping the team’s destiny, he is unlikely to be joined at the hip should the team’s toxicity levels rise.

Erasmus prefers to operate in the shadows but he may have readjusted his method following a potentially life-changing experience at Munster. He had barely settled in as director of rugby when he had to take centre stage after the unexpected death of the team’s head coach, Anthony Foley, in 2016.

He indicated he was keen to lay bare his Bok plans to the Sunday Times but SA Rugby’s chief communications gatekeeper suggested otherwise.

While Coetzee’s low win percentage made him an increasingly unpalatable option as national coach, the game’s followers, with some justification, have wondered aloud why Springbok coaches have to depart

Franco Smith Possible replacement

the scene amid such imbroglios.

Equally, it is one of South African sports’ enduring mysteries that coaches, who are presumably at the top of their game when appointed, are so expendable while the amateurs who appoint them remain impervious to the vicissitudes of the professional game. It is perhaps partly explained by the fact that the men who rubber-stamp the Bok coach’s appointment are in those positions as a result of a deeply archaic system of patronage.

Coetzee has been criticised for not owning up to his shortcomings, but the same should apply to Roux, who boldly stated after his appointment that he should be judged on the performance of the Springboks.

Roux, since 2010, has presided over a period in which SA Rugby and the Springboks have suffered vast reputational damage.

It is worth noting the last Bok coach to leave the job with a semblance of decorum was Kitch Christie, who was replaced by Andre Markgraaff in 1996.

That tenure was ended by a racial slur and it is quite staggering that almost 21 years later, race issues continue to play a role in the departure of a Bok coach.

Some accused Coetzee of playing the race card when he highlighted certain concerns in his letter to Roux, but those who did so may have had difficulty looking past the black and white nature of his win percentage.

Coetzee has gone to ground but should he break his silence he should warn whoever replaces him that the demise of a Bok coach is as predictable as that of a lemming.