Arme Allister Coetzee.
Everyone saw it coming.
We all knew Toetie would lose his job after a disastrous two years in charge of the Springboks.
His record of 12 wins out of 25 matches speaks for itself.
That, however, doesn’t tell the story of the swak performances and the harm done to the Bok brand.
They played some swak rugby - if you can call it that - at times.
The Boks looked prehistoric on his watch and there were some unwanted records picked up on the way - like record hidings at the hands of the All Blacks.
Each of those 50-plus hammerings were predictable.
I saw the signs. We all did. But the Bokke got caught out like a husband forgetting his wife’s birthday or their wedding anniversary.
The blame, though, can’t fall completely on Toetie.
And he came out swinging when he was told that he would be fired in a January 18 meeting with Saru CEO Jurie Roux.
TRUE COLOURS: SARU CEO Jurie Roux
In that meeting, the cat was let out of the bag about the true nature of Rassie Erasmus’ job as Director of Rugby - he was always going to take over the reins from Coetzee.
With Saru bosses apparently trying to keep him in his job as a “ceremonial coach”, it became clear that they would use Toetie for their own purposes.
And that purpose, as explains in a leaked letter, was to use him as a fall guy and a shield against government’s transformation policies.
Saru’s mistakes are many in their dealings with the national team during Coetzee’s tenure as boss.
SCANDALOUS: Saru president Mark Alexander
But using Coetzee for window-dressing was by far their biggest.
With the Bok team ordered to be 50 percent black by the time the World Cup kicks off in Japan next year September, Saru can’t treat their black coach like a puppet.
I expect the Department of Sports and Recreation to come down hard on Saru for this.
The commitments that they made to government and the nation with regards to transformation, were grossly undermined by this move.
If they wanted to replace the coach, then they should have just done it.
They should have fired Toetie, pointing to his record.
But using him as the fall guy just so it still looks like they have a person of colour in charge is despicable.
They were trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.
REAL MAN IN CHARGE: Bok baas Erasmus
If Toetie goes, Roux and president Mark Alexander and his deputies should all follow him out of the door.