The 44-year-old Meyer's resumé, which includes four Currie Cups and a Super 15 title, rivals that of the late Kitch Christie, who took the Bok job in 1994 after two Currie Cups and a Super 10 title.

Christie was statistically the best Bok coach of all time, with a 100% winning record in 14 matches in charge, which included winning the 1995 World Cup on home soil. If comparisons are anything to go by, Meyer's appointment is a masterstroke.

And, like the last two World Cup-winning coaches, New Zealand's Graham Henry and South Africa's Jake White, Meyer is a former teacher.

Some will argue that his appointment has come four years too late. Meyer was the favourite to succeed White after the Springboks' victorious 2007 World Cup campaign, but controversially lost out to Peter de Villiers.

At the time, SA Rugby president Oregan Hoskins admitted that politics played a role in De Villiers's appointment following a heated presidents council meeting. Meyer was left disillusioned and drifted out of the game for almost three years before returning as the Bulls' executive of rugby late last year.

By losing out on the Bok job in 2008, Meyer, who had just guided the Bulls to the 2007 Super 14 crown, missed the chance to work at an international level with some of the players he made great at Loftus.

Lock Victor Matfield has retired, while scrumhalf Fourie du Preez and lock Danie Rossouw are playing in Japan and are probably a little past their best.

Is the mandate from SA Rugby to rebuild and develop a team over the next two years that is ready to take the Boks forward to the 2015 and 2019 World Cups? Or is it simply to win more than 70% of all games and maintain a home winning ratio in excess of 90%?

In either scenario Meyer has the right approach to be successful because he has experienced downs as well as ups in nearly 15 years as a top-flight professional coach.

After guiding the unfancied South Western Districts Eagles to the Vodacom Cup semifinals in 1998, he was seconded to the Stormers as forwards coach under Alan Solomons in 1999.

The Cape side were superb for most of the campaign and earned a home semifinal on the back of a pack that surprised opponents. Meyer was widely credited for improving the Stormers' forwards and his contribution caught the eye of Bok coach Nick Mallett.

Meyer would work with the Boks throughout the '99 season, which culminated in a third-place finish at the World Cup.

At the time Bulls rugby was in decline and Meyer was employed to breathe life back into the team.

In his first season as a Super rugby head coach, Meyer encountered the brutal realities of the competition as the Bulls slumped to a dismal season, losing eight, drawing two and winning only one of their 11 games.

The Bulls suits relieved Meyer of his Super rugby duties for the 2001 season, "demoting" him to coach of the Vodacom Cup and Currie Cup sides. It was here that the foundation of the Bulls empire was laid.

Meyer was coaching for his professional life and duly delivered the Vodacom Cup. He identified talented youngsters Bakkies Botha, Rossouw, Jaco van der Westhuyzen and JP Nel, who would all become stalwarts over the next five years.

He had already worked with and recruited Matfield in 2000 and over the next two seasons he scouted players from school and other provinces.

Between 2002 and 2006 the Bulls played in every Currie Cup final, winning three outright, drawing one and losing another.

In 2007 they became the first South African side to win the Super 14. All of that was achieved on Meyer's watch.