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."

【体坛英语资讯：Move quickly on national coach: rugby legend Matfield of S. Africa】相关文章：

★ 体坛英语资讯：World Cup champions beaten, runners-up held to draw in Group of Death

★ 体坛英语资讯：Yao, Yi shine in first matchup

★ 体坛英语资讯：French drive plus local nous to revive women

★ 体坛英语资讯：Top seed Henin ousted in Dubai Championship tennis

★ 体坛英语资讯：Turkey score stunning comeback win, Switzerland beat Portugal

★ 娱乐英语资讯：Reese Witherspoon tops list of most-liked celebs

★ 体坛英语资讯：We are one big happy family

★ 体坛英语资讯：Olympic torch relay starts in Nagano

★ 体坛英语资讯：Bremen promote Nouri as head coach

★ 娱乐英语资讯：Paul Newman responds cryptically to cancer reports