Writing for SuperSport, Gavin Rich has a word of warning for those Springboks fans expecting their side to return to top form on home soil.
"How to get out of this mess? Some would say they can redeem themselves during the home leg of this Tri-Nations season, which to some extent they can. They will not win the competition from where they are now, but three wins will regain some pride.
"But what will it mean to the building process towards next year’s World Cup? Everyone knows that the Bulls’ kicking orientated strategy invariably comes up trumps on the Highveld, and even though they quite clearly miss Fourie du Preez, they can probably rely on that edge to give them at least two wins from the remaining three matches.
"For a start, can you really imagine the Australians being able to keep up their high tempo game for 80 minutes at altitude? If they did, it would be a first. The last time a team tried to run the Boks ragged at altitude it was the British and Irish Lions in the second test at Loftus. It worked for the first half, but in the second they collapsed in a heap and the Boks were able to pull off one of rugby’s great fightbacks.
"All the South African coastal teams would be in agreement with the following point – taking on the Bulls at home with a game that requires all-out attack for 80 minutes is suicide. The Sharks and the Stormers have tried it at stages of their history, they have invariably failed.
"However the next World Cup is not being played at altitude, it is being played in New Zealand. It’s why the lessons that have been learned, and the fault lines that have become all too apparent on this most recent tour and through the preceding months cannot be ignored. They must be addressed, and addressed now."
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