Coetzee stays Springboks coach for now

South Africa's rugby union announced major changes to the structure of the game in the country on Friday, but resisted the immediate temptation to dismiss embattled coach Allister Coetzee.

SA Rugby's all-powerful General Council met on Friday to push through a raft of constitutional changes, but Coetzee's future remained uncertain after the team suffered the worst year in their history by losing eight of their 12 Tests.

Coetzee will provide a report to SA Rugby's High Performance Committee on Tuesday, which will then make a recommendation to the organisation's Executive Committee.

The Executive Committee has taken over from the General Council as the decision-makers at SA Rugby and will select future Bok coaches in another of the constitutional changes announced on Friday.

This takes the power of coach selection out of the hands of the 15 individual unions in the country and into SA Rugby's inner sanctum, headed by president Mark Alexander.

Other constitutional changes have been pushed through that SA Rugby hope will provide a more solid platform from which to select future Bok squads.

Squad selection will no longer be made by committee and instead a single convenor will work with the coach.