Meyer favourite for Springboks role

Bulls' Super 14-winning coach Heyneke Meyer heads a four-man shortlist to become the next South Africa coach next year.

South Africa Rugby released a statement confirming that Meyer, emerging coach Peter de Villiers, former Springbok sevens coach Chester Williams and current Springbok backline coach Allister Coetzee will compete to replace Jake White when his contract expires on 31 December.

White, who earlier this month led South Africa to World Cup glory with a 15-6 victory over England in the final, announced on Wednesday that he was leaving after his contract expired, blaming a poor relationship with administrators.

Meyer is favourite to take over after an illustrious spell with the Bulls that included four consecutive Currie Cup finals, two Super rugby semi-finals and this year's triumph in the Super 14.

De Villiers has coached the South Africa Under-21s to the IRB Under-21 Championship, and earlier this year took the emerging Springboks team to the IRB Nations Cup title in Romania.

Coetzee is White's right-hand man and a former South Africa A coach himself. White has publicly backed Coetzee to take over from him after their four-year stint together which brought World Cup success.

Williams is probably the least prominent of the four, having had minor success with the Springbok sevens team and having taken charge of the Cats for one season of the Super 14, where they finished second last in the competition and he was sacked.

He has since coached the Mpumalanga Pumas Currie Cup side with limited success and recently helped the Tunisian Sevens Rugby team in their preparations for the coming IRB Sevens Circuit.