SA Rugby seek legal advice to remove Coetzee

The immediate future for Allister Coetzee doesn’t look particularly bright today after it was reported that SA Rugby sought legal advice before formerly removing the head coach from his role.

After two tumultuous and painful seasons in charge, Coetzee met with a review committee on Wednesday to defend his position.

While there has been no official word from SA Rugby as of yet, behind the scenes there is an understanding that he will not be continuing in his role as Springbok coach.

According to TimesLIVE the decision has effectively been made by SA Rugby but they are seeking legal advice before removing Coetzee to make sure “all the labour law hurdles have been cleared”.

Whether it has anything to do with the so-called ‘golden handshake,’ that would see Coetzee walk away as a very rich man is unclear, with rumblings earlier in the year that SA Rugby may not have to fork out huge sums of money to remove him if his win ratio was below 65%.

There will also be no final decision on the future of Allister Coetzee made until at least the New Year.

In a statement, SA Rugby revealed it “will not be in a position to respond to questions regarding that speculation on the coaching of the national team until the New Year”.

There is also speculation that Coetzee will not even need to be removed from his role, as Erasmus will have full control over team selection and gameplans, meaning he would just hire Coatzee’s assistants, making him a lame duck for all intents and purposes.

However, this would ultimately create a lack of cohesion within the Springbok team dynamic, so it’s unlikely they will go this way.

In public Coetzee has been firmly sticking to his guns, claiming that the Boks made massive progress in 2017.

“I’m signed on until 2019. That’s what my contract says. The team has really grown. It’s a really healthy team environment,” he stated earlier in the month.

“They (the Springbok players) are hurting at the moment. They feel that they let themselves down and the country down. You can only feel like that if you have a good team environment. That wasn’t the case last year. Last year was a fiasco. Definitely a fiasco.”

The emphasis appears to be clearly on the players and the use of the word ‘they’ would seem to deflect from any introspective thought or personal responsibility, which is an aspect of his tenure that both the media and Springbok fans have taken umbrage to.