Allister Coetzee is the new Springbok coach

SA Rugby president Oregan Hoskins made the announcement in Johannesburg this morning that Allister Coetzee will take over from Heyneke Meyer as Sprinkbok coach.

“We met on April 1 and it was an unanimous choice of all our stakeholders,” he said.

Meyer took the team to a third place finish in last year’s Rugby World Cup.

During the announcement, Hoskins also re-emphasised that transformation imperatives would form a key part of the new coach’s mandate.

Coetzee, a former Stormers player and coach, who was also an assistant coach to Jake White during the World Cup in 2007, has a huge task ahead of him. He has to continue the success of the Springboks and transformation quotas will be far stricter for him than his predecessors.

According to reports there will have to be a 50 percent requirement of players of colour in the 31 Springbok 2019 Rugby World Cup squad.

This means atleast 9 of the 15 players would need to be black African.

Following the end of Jake White’s tenure, Coetzee was one of the four main candidates to take over as head coach but lost out to Peter de Villiers.

Coetzee was instrumental in the Springboks’ Tri-Nations triumph in 2004 and their World Cup victory in 2007.

His management team will consist of assistants Mzwandile Stick and Johann van Graan.

Watch Coetzee talk about his Stormers departure last year: