Heyneke Meyer was pleased to leave Leicester in good order © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Heyneke Meyer

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Teams: England | Leicester Tigers

Former Leicester coach Heyneke Meyer has spoken for the first time since leaving the club last week following a period of compassionate leave in South Africa. Meyer called time on his stay in Leicester after deciding that he could not commit to the club due to a number of illnesses in his family.

"I always said that if a player cannot give me 100% effort, 100% of the time, then he can't play for me," he told South African newspaper Sondag. "The same principle counts for me. I could not focus 100 per cent on my coaching there and I needed to make a decision.

"It was a difficult one to make, because I had an unbelievable time coaching there. Leicester is a great club and we had just started with a big vision. We had just started down a path but they will still do well and are on the right road. They qualified for the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup and are placed well in the Guinness Premiership."

Meyer also highlighted his desire to put something back into South African rugby now that he has returned. During a highly successful coaching career in his home country Meyer took the Blue Bulls to four Currie Cup titles and his Bulls side was the first South African franchise to lift the Super 14 title in 2007.

"The club understood where I was coming from and I definitely learnt a lot in my time there," he continued. "South Africa though is still a wonderful country and I really missed the country and the people while I was away. My heart is always here.

"I realised that this is a great country and if I can serve rugby in any way going forward, it would be an honour to do so. I am at the age where I want to give something back to the country and the sport. We have great athletes here, we have the players.

"We just need to get the right structures in place and we will be unbeatable. There have been a number of offers, but it was a difficult decision to come back and I don't want to make any hasty decisions."