Johan Ackermann says he has not been approached by SA Rugby to coach the Springboks.

Ackermann left the Lions after coaching them to last year’s Super Rugby final. His Gloucester side currently sits fourth in the English Premiership.

‘Obviously things change quickly in the professional game. Again, my focus is at Gloucester, this is where I am now and at the moment it stays like that, and therefore I can just control what I can and that is that I know I’m at Gloucester now.

‘The reality is my phone hasn’t been phoned [by SA Rugby] so I can’t give you that answer [about the Bok coach job]. It hasn’t been phoned when I’m in South Africa and it hasn’t been phoned while I was in the UK so as long as it stays like that, I’ll do my job to the best of my ability.’

Ackermann also confirmed that the Lions’ Ruan Dreyer and Rohan Janse van Rensburg had been discussed in terms of potential new signings for the club, but added that he did not want to discuss it publicly.

‘I think it would be unfair for me to speak about those players and contract situations. Obviously, it is an ongoing process between the agents and David [Humphreys, director of rugby] over what players are available and again, there are so many factors that are involved.

‘There are families involved, it is money that is involved. A lot of those names did come across our table but also there are certain regulations and stuff.’

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