Former Springbok forwards coach Matt Proudfoot has been reinstated in the role for the coming season after Pieter de Villiers withdrew from the position late on Thursday.

Proudfoot‚ the former Scotland international prop‚ was right-hand man to former Bok coach Allister Coetzee in 2016 and 2017 but was moved sideways when Rassie Erasmus was named Bok coach six weeks ago.

Although Proudfoot hadn’t been sacked‚ he was ‘redeployed’ as a salaried member of SA Rugby’s high performance unit.

De Villiers‚ the former French international prop‚ was supposed to take over the role but cited “family commitments” for his withdrawal from Erasmus’s team management‚ paving the way for Proudfoot’s recall.

“After my discussions with Pieter‚ we jointly came to the conclusion that he would unfortunately not be able to give all his attention to the Springboks‚ which is fully understandable given his current family commitments‚” Erasmus said.

Proudfoot joined the Springbok management team at the national squad’s second four-day alignment camp‚ which finished in Vanderbijlpark on Wednesday.

“Matt has a good understanding and relationship with the group of players who represented the Springboks the past two seasons and slotted in easily‚” said Erasmus.

In terms of his future role at SA Rugby‚ De Villiers will from now on focus on the various Elite Player Development programmes‚ assist with the preparations of the Junior Springboks and also the SA Schools team.