Matfield favours new blood over continuity in backing Lions and Bulls favourites for Bok job

Legendary Springbok lock Victor Matfield believes the national team's future after this year's Rugby World Cup should be predicated on proverbial new blood instead of continuity.

It explains then why he - a tad surprisingly given current discourse about Mzwandile Stick and Deon Davids' credentials - favours Johan Ackermann and Johann van Graan as candidates to fill the Bok head coach vacancy once Jacques Nienaber leaves for Leinster.

Franco Smith, Allister Coetzee's assistant at national level in 2017 and currently working wonders at Glasgow Warriors, has also caught the 46-year-old's eye.

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"I think there are three very strong candidates. Johan Ackermann was very successful with the Lions, Franco Smith has done well in a few places, and then you have Johann van Graan, who coached Munster and was an assistant coach in many Springbok Tests," Matfield said while speaking on a media call for the URC. "If I had to choose, it would be between Van Graan and Ackermann."  

Lions favourite Ackermann won a Currie Cup and guided the men from Ellis Park to two consecutive Super Rugby finals, before moving to Gloucester in England, where he reached the Challenge Cup final in his first season and reached the semi-finals of the Premiership in 2019.

His charges ended second in their Champions Cup pool in his final year, but couldn't reach the playoffs.

Since moving to Japan in 2020, Ackermann has enjoyed mixed fortunes.

His second year with the Red Hurricanes delivered a quarter-final berth, yet the drama of Japanese communications giant NTT scaling back on its investment in the club led to relegation.

Ackermann was then put in charge of Urayasu D-Rocks,