Clutching at straws...

"Earlier this week former Springboks coach Nick Mallett said he wasn't interested in returning to the scene as a national selector."

Please let this mean that he does wanna return, but as coach!

Mallett keeping himself in the news...... didn't he do the same thing about the Sharks job and the England job?

Mallett was done at Twickenham in November 1998....but almost 20 years later this fake is still being talked about.

 he probably read about Eddie Jones saying the same about the English job while others like Joke White were putting their hands up

Nick might try Schalk at Scrum-Half bergamsco-style! Maybe he'll even have a better outing seeing as he played fly half in world cup...

 A mature and knowledgeable coach. He is the star turn on TV and clearly knows even more about the game than Mitchell who is no slouch.
He would make a very good Bok coach as he undersatnds the modern game. always puts his finger on the Bok shoetcomings and suggests sound options. Anyone who bothers to listen to him cannot but realise he knows really the game and can think strategically.

 The same Mitchell who led the USA to a resounding defeat against the mighty Brazilians ?

 Mallett - Vyf las trek.

Watched TMO on Supersport last night and and Mallet said "Give it to Coetzee and make Akkerman and Cois his assistants. Maybe not such a bad call since it'll mean that Akkerman will have an influence immediately as well as having a good shoe in at getting the job in 2020.

 I think it is not as easy as you might make it out to be.  The boardroom fight at SARU is in full swing.   Please refer to the thread on the issue of Roux and you will see what I meant.
It would be difficult for Hoskins to get Coetzee appointed as he may be on the way out.    I think that it really is a disaster and the lack of appointment of a coach timeously is a disgrace.  Roux has been given all his functions back - and one of those is to come up with a recommendation of the coach.  The actions of Hoskins in trying to take over the coach selection project has gone into the dustbin and without Hoskins the aspirations of Coetzee is likely to go into the same dustbin.
       

How come Hoskins will go if it's Roux who has the embezzlement ghosts coming back to haunt him?

Mike give us a score prediction for the Lions game this weekend.

 Plum
From what I can make out the Roux issue is really a side issue - the main one apparently is the coach issue where the politicos are going for Coetzee and the rugby-orientated group for anybody but Coetzee.  The issue of merit selection is also an issue and there are other differences inside SARU as well - eg the Kings where Hoskins is trying to protect Watson.
As I said the anti-Hoskins group has taken up the case of Roux on a legal basis.  Roux cannot be sidelined until found obligated to pay Stellenbosch the money they claim from him - since that would indicate an offence has in fact been committed, since he has done nothing wrong while working for SARU.  They can legally only sideline or suspend Roux if he did something wrong within his work environment in SARU.  Difficult for many people to understand - but Roux is innocent until found guilty in a court of law.  What baffled me to an extent too is why is the University not laying a criminal charge with SAPS and trying to use a civil claim for refund of money.   They may not have as strong a case as they pretend to have.
However, this case may take years to resolve and in the meantime SARU has to comply with their contract with Roux or settled to terminate the ontract by paying him out.   Not likely to happen.      

Plum - agree, Coetzee with Ackermann as asst would check a lot of boxes .

If there was ever a time for SA rugby to setup a strict policy of no overseas players in the Bok setup, now is it. New coach with a new setup, four years to the next World Cup so players could plan out their contracts. I don't know how successful it would be in this professional era, or for that matter fair to the players as their livelihood and with the exchange rate abysmal but it seems to be worth a shot and the benefits/side-effects of the policy would be easy to judge.

Cool, thanks for that Mike. Gotta say though, if he did have something to do with any kind underhand managing of finances previously in his career then he should not be in charge of SARU. It's simple. If you interviewed me for a job and I openly admit that I've stolen money from my previous employer, then I'd not be surprised when you don't hire me. Not that he stole the money but embezzlement is just as bad. So really, even if he hasn't done something similar, or just not been caught yet doing it at SARU, doesn't mean that his previous actions don't speak to his character. Personally, I'd sack him from SARU if he's found guilty of the previous stuff. There are guys with clean records out there who can do just as good, possibly a better job than him. Get one of them in.

 Plum
What you say will no doubt happen in the end if the allegations have been legally proved.   Until such time it remains allegations.  

 oimatey
There has always been a policy based on the fact that foreign-based players should not be selected if there are competitive players available plying their trade in SA.   However, Meyer has abused that requirement to the utmost degree through his selections on the basis of "I know what players are capable of".
The fact is that there are serious problems with the selection of foreign-based players and there are in particular some issues of importance such as the following:-
Performance Requirement
How is present actual performance of players playing for foreign clubs determined.   The reputation basis used by Meyer is not necessarily a reflection of actual present performance and there have been cases where players are not even the regular starting players for their clubs - eg Steenkamp and Morne Steyn - who has been selected to represent the Springboks.   Most of Meyer's squad selections have been good in their days - but virtually all of them have one thing in common - they are in the declining stage of their playing careers and what they were capable to do in the past do not reflect what they are competent as being able to do at this stage of their careers.  Be it as it may - there is no real performance evaluation done when foreign-based players have been selected bearing in mind the norm used by Meyer as announced publicly by him.
This remains a serious problem and should not disregarded as it was in the past.
The coaching and Game Plan Issue 
Meyer himself emphasized this issue by establishing liaison processes with the SA Super Rugby coaches.   However, those mechanisms were influenced by even the local coaching set-ups.   There were two distinct camps in SA present in SA in the Meyer years, namely -
*   the agreement camp - where the playing styles of Meyer was used - eg Ludeke, Coetzee and White; and
*    the camp where a different style of rugby was emphasized - eg Ackerman and to a lesser extent Drotske.
Meyer soled that "problem by only in extremely limited cases select players from those two franchises for his squad.
However, if even in SA there is no agreement on playing style - how much more is it a problem as to foreign coaches.   The issue has been highlighted during the recent WC - where New Zealand Australia and Argentina utilized a more comprehensive game plan - I will deal with the SA situation separately as uit ties in more with what is happening in general in Europe.   Be it as it may - during the WC it became clear that the NH rugby game plan and consequently its coaching approach is vastly different from what is encountered in SH hemisphere countries through competitions like the RC and Super Rugby.   There is some uniformity among NH coaches as to that approach - but that does not mean that they in fact coach the players on the basis that is encountered in SA.  
As mentioned the game plan utilized by Meyer differed from what is the case in other SH countries.  The reason for this difference are -
*  the presence of older SA based players whom in rugby terms grew up in the area where the SA teams in general used the limited approach that backline usage is of a limited nature; and
*   the presence in the SA squad who was previously part of the so-called traditional  nature and was taught nothing new by their new NH coaches.  
Most of the foreign-based players were in their declining performance years and you cannot teach an old donkey new tricks.  They were just not capable to adjust to a different style of rugby.  So effectively SA was stuck in a groove of rugby that became less and less competitive in recent years.   It is typical that SA managed to get through to the WC semi-finally after beating Wales by a nail-biter and then went out of the tournament.
Since in the major SH tournaments rugby of an entire different nature is played - the problem for SA coaches with foreign-based players is how to reconcile the NH coaching and game plan situation with those of SA-based players.   That cannot be done within the few days before the players get together before tests are being played and the result is the virtual absence of an effective game plan used by the Springboks.   We became less competitive in SH rugby competitions because of a very limited approach used and that situation is aggravated by the presence of players from NH clubs in the team.  
The Availability of Competitive NH Club Players
The recent foreign-based selection of NH Club players have all been of players who were near retirement age and there are only a limited number of really promising players that can perhaps be considered for future selection.   I can in fact only think of 3 potential candidates - namely Kitshoff, Jacques du Plessis and Willemse.  
Of the old guard of Meyer the only NC club players that at a stretch to be considered are Vermeulen and  perhaps Habana and Louw.  What I find amazing is that Vermeulen has struggled since joining Toulon and he apparently has adjustment problems of his own.   So where are we now - we are in a situation where Vermeulen is the only real candidate - the rest are disposable.
In essence I think that the SA Policy of selection of foreign-based players should be applied strictly in future and the disregarding of the policy by Meyer should not proceed like it did in the past four years.