The post has been held by interim chief executive Fred McLeod since the resignation of Phil Anderton earlier this year.

Anderton has since moved on to Hearts but, following a thorough search for a suitable candidate, the governing body are in no rush to make an appointment just yet, despite interviewing four candidates.

The postponement of the chief executive decision means any permanent appointment of a permanent Scotland coach will also be delayed.

Edinburgh Gunners head coach Frank Hadden has taken Scotland to successive wins against the Barbarians and Romania after taking over from sacked Matt Williams on a caretaker basis.

An SRU spokesman said: In terms of the national coach, we are sure the new chief executive would want to have an input into the appointment.

Our first international is not until November 12 and preparations would not begin until October.

We are keen to appoint a chief executive. But, in doing so, we want to ensure we have the best possible candidate.

SRU chairman Allan Munro added: We had four very good candidates on our shortlist, each with excellent qualities, but in our deliberations we found that none possessed the full range of qualities we believed were needed to meet our brief for the role.

We have therefore decided not to appoint at this time and the search continues.

The vital issue is that we find the right candidate for the job and until that happens I will be working full-time for Scottish Rugby, together with Fred McLeod who has agreed to remain as interim chief executive, until the right candidate has been found.

However, the SRU are keen to stress that the search for a permanent Scotland coach is ongoing.

An SRU spokesman added: The appointment of the national coach is a subject the board is continuing.

And they will not be sitting on their hands concerning the appointment.