Bok captaincy: Just an interim job;Rugby 365

Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer was giving little away, other than to confirm his new captain will just be an 'interim' appointment.

Regular Bok skipper Jean de Villiers will miss the June Tests - against a World XV, Wales (twice) and Scotland - with a knee complaint that will sideline him for about two months.

He will "hopefully" be back for the start of Rugby Championship in August.

Describing the loss of his captain as "a massive setback", the Bok mentor added that they will miss him next month.

Meyer, addressing a media contingent at the team's training base in Durban, confirmed that he has not made a final call on who will replace De Villiers as Bok skipper when South Africa start their 2014 campaign against a World XV in Cape Town on June 7.

The only facts that Meyer revealed was that the captain will be appointed for all four June internationals, but not beyond.

"I don't want to change too much," Meyer said.

"Jean [de Villiers] will be back and he will be my captain for the rest of the year," Meyer said, adding that De Villiers knows he will continue to lead the team once he is fit again.

Meyer spoke about the "culture" created with De Villiers as the skipper and said there is no need to go in the different direction.

"He is not out for long so it won't be a long-term captaincy appointment," the Bok coach said, adding that he is considering a few factors before naming his captain for next month's Tests.

Meyer was happy with the quality of the leaders in the squad and felt that the stand-in captain would come from a group that include Bismarck du Plessis, Adriaan Strauss, Victor Matfield, Francois Louw, Schalk Burger and Duane Vermeulen.

"There are seven or eight players who can probably do the job," Meyer told a media scrum.

He said he would speak to the senior players before making a final call.

Meyer also sees the captain as an extension of himself on the field, a player who "knows exactly what you want".