Sharks' coach John Plumtree and Lions' mentor John Mitchell, who both hail from Hawera in Taranaki, New Zealand, were considered contenders for the job.

Matfield, however, felt that South Africa was not ready for a foreign coach and it would be a grave mistake if Saru went that route.

The 34-year-old said the remaining Springbok players had not yet received their contracts for next year, which he said caused a lot of uncertainty among the players.

"If SA Rugby can sort that out as soon as possible it would be great," he said.

"During the previous World Cup, we worried even before the start of the tournament, and there were about 10 guys who signed contracts for the new year.

"The funny thing is that no one even talked about it this year. I spoke to guys like Jean (De Villiers) and Schalk (Burger) and they said they had not signed anything yet."

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