Speaking after his team's training session in Cape Town, Coetzee denied media reports that he had spoken to Meyer about taking a job as assistant coach.

Meyer is tipped to succeed Peter de Villiers when the new national coach is named on Friday.

"Heyneke never approached me," Coetzee said.

"We last chatted about two weeks ago, but we did not speak about Springbok-related matters."

Coetzee confirmed last week that he was not on the SA Rugby Union's shortlist for the Bok head coach's job.

The shortlist has seemingly been whittled down to two names - Meyer, the Blue Bulls' senior professional coach, and Ireland forwards coach Gert Smal.

However it's understood that SARU and Smal could not come to an agreement regarding his salary.

There were other reasons that contributed to his decision to remain in Ireland, such as the fact that he has committed to the side until 2013 and his family have built a life in Dublin since settling there in 2008.

The Afrikaans newspaper, Rapport, reported on Sunday that Meyer was now the favourite for the position and that he had met with SARU boss Jurie Roux in Pretoria last week.