Legendary referee Nigel Owens will not be accepting an offer to join the South African coaching team for this year's World Cup.
Springboks director of rugby Rassie Erasmus wanted the Welshman on board as their new referee coach with the reigning world champions looking to defend the crown they won in Japan four years ago.
The role would have seen Owens work with Siya Kolisi and his team to improve their communication and overall relationship with match officials, as well as refereeing their contact sessions during training and giving feedback to World Rugby on behalf of South Africa.
Last month, 51-year-old Owens revealed he was torn over the offer, labelling it "incredibly exciting" but questioning whether it was coming at the right time for him with other personal and work commitments to think about.
WalesOnline understands he has now told Erasmus that he cannot commit to the role at this time.
It comes days after Erasmus spoke of his hopes that Owens' appointment would help to restore the Springboks reputation with World Rugby, telling the Mail that the Welsh legend remained the one missing piece of the team's jigsaw. The South Africa boss remained confident of bringing Owens on board.
Explaining why he so badly wanted the Welshman, Erasmus continued: "The reason is straightforward. We could take one of our local refs but it would be another South African voice. People from the outside think the South African voice is attacking or arrogant. Even the way I talk, sometimes people think it’s aggressive. When you’ve known me a while you know it’s not aggressive."
"We definitely want to change that view," he added. "Someone like Nigel might come in and say, 'these guys are doing it right', or he might say, 'hey guys, you have to change a few things here'. It’s the way he communicates. It’s a real thing we’re trying to fix, not a smokescreen."
Opening up about the job offer in his column for WalesOnline last month, Owens had said: "It’s obviously an incredibly exciting opportunity and I think these kinds of roles are good for the integrity of the game as a whole and benefit the players and the referees.
"But it comes down to whether this is coming at the right time for me at the moment. If this had come along a few years ago or I didn’t have other commitments, it’s probably something that I wouldn’t have to think twice about – but I do have them and they’re very important to me."
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