Boks to name new coach on April 1

April 1-announcement about the next Springbok coach.

This is no early joke about the hi-jinks which inhabit this date on the calendar. The South African Rugby Union is serious and issued a statement about their intention to ratify Heyneke Meyer's successor after their next meeting on that date.

Meyer was squeezed out after the Boks finished third in last year's World Cup and Saru's attempts to settle on his successor have foundered.

The public favourite seemed to be former Stormers' coach Allister Coetzee while Saru appeared to be chasing others inclusing Rassie Erasmus.

Nothing happened until now when both appear to be back in the frame.

"The high performance committee examined a list of potential coaches and identified their preferred candidate against a set of pre-determined criteria," SARU president Oregan Hoskins said.

"In broad terms we were looking for someone with a proven track record at an elite level; someone who would embrace the objectives of our strategic transformation plan and someone who would understand the public demands of the job and what that entails."

SARU expects to make an April 1 announcement about the new Springbok coach who will begin work with three tests against Ireland in June.