Coetzee arrived back on Monday in South Africa as the season closed with the worst ever year for the Springboks, losing 8 out of 12 tests in a calendar season and making calls for Coetzee’s head to roll grow even louder after a tour where they lost to England, Italy and Wales.
But the Bok coach is defiant, and underlined more than once that he is not planning to walk away from the task he took on in April, and will now address certain aspects with his bosses when his season review takes place in the next few weeks.
Coetzee said he understands the disappointment of fans, but believes while there may be many who want him to go, there are just as many who want him to stay.
“I can understand that the supporters are disappointed and so are we. I can understand it and in any job it would be the case,” he said.
“But I’m appointed until 2019. I want to make sure that whenever I leave there is a concrete tangible blueprint not just put in place by me but in collaboration with the franchise coaches so we can say this is how we want South Africa to play going forward.
“This is how we are going to contract players and this is how we want our players’ conditioning levels to be going forward to play against the best.
“Whatever the spectators feel out there, those are also just perceptions, there are also many who feel I must stay on.
“ I am a guy who will never walk away from anything and there is a great opportunity to turn things around.”
