Former Springbok coach Peter de Villiers has fired a parting shot at his former bosses at Saru, saying that there was no “exit strategy” planned for him when his contract expired at the end of last year.

De Villiers, who was officially replaced in the job by former Bulls boss Heyneke Meyer last week, was unhappy with the treatment he and his management team received at the hands of Saru and claimed he had been kept in the dark over his future as Bok coach.

"Nobody spoke to me about it since I came back from the World Cup. Nobody spoke to me. Perhaps I shouldn’t speak about it, because if I speak about it, people think I am lobbying for a job. I am not criticising, this is a big organisation and there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes, but it doesn’t take much to be professional and sit down and say ‘listen here, we don’t think that we are going to renew your contract’. Then give you the reasons for it. Then you can move on," De Villiers told Radio702 in an interview on Wednesday.

"There was no exit strategy for me. We didn’t talk about anything. I was surprised to hear that (Saru CEO) Jurie Roux said on radio that they were busy with the process to appoint the Bok coach since June last year.

"So since June last year they never had the opportunity to talk to me, although we were together for four weeks in New Zealand and stayed in the same hotel. We travelled together and they never had the chance to talk to me. Is that how you treat someone? I don’t know, I can have my own opinion about it, but I can’t air it because I don’t want people to be negative. We need them to support the Springboks, that’s all."

The former Bok coach also said he had sympathy for his successor, who has been given little time to prepare the team for their first series – against England in June – and has yet to appoint a backroom staff.

"I feel sorry for Heyneke, because he is starting on the back foot. The franchises are already set for the new season and know the news that a new team will come into Super Rugby. The franchises will now play their players down the drain to survive, to make sure they aren’t in that bottom spot," De Villiers said.

"It will be a very tough year, and Heyneke was only appointed now. He couldn’t sit down and talk to the franchises before they did their planning in place. He couldn’t sit down and reveal his plans and discuss with them."