And so here we are, at the start of the beginning of the end for some Rugby World Cup winners.
The inevitable time seems to have arrived for some players and we should be okay with that.
The current Springbok squad has served the country well, they have won back-to-back World Cups, a Lions test series and are current Rugby Championship champions.
Their tales of success have no bounds, but sport is a cruel master and professional sport has been good to the Springbok players of late.
It may sound a tad overboard to say this now, after an 18-point win over and Italian side that had a lot of heart and passion, but the second half performance at Loftus Versfeld this past weekend has put a lot of Bok stars on notice.
The team has always prided itself on analysing its own performances not in terms of the scoreboard but rather in terms of the goals they set themselves.
BRUTAL REVIEW
Keeping their own high standards has been a massive part of this team’s success and we’ve all seen the clips on Chasing the Sun of the brutal reviews when the team doesn’t meet the standards, they’ve set themselves.
This was the likely Monday scenario again this week when coach Rassie Erasmus addressed the players after that win. Frustrated was the word he used on Saturday night after the press conference. Another telling bit was right at the end when he dropped a bomb, saying some first choice players may find themselves as second choice from this week.
That wasn’t a threat, it was a reality. It was a coach realising the ground is shifting beneath his feet and he needs to act not on sentiment but on the reality in front of him. Of all the coaches in World Rugby, Erasmus is not one to make choices that may be unpopular.
NO KNEE JERK REACTION
Before we get ahead of ourselves, this is not the end. There is no knee-jerk reaction, this is not throwing those players under the bus, but with a squad full of talent and depth galore and a load of players knocking on the door, the reality is that some will drop by the wayside.
The perfect scenario, of course, would be to prolong the careers of World Cup winners, while allowing the youngsters to gather test caps and experience in the lead up to the 2027 Rugby World Cup title defence.
That has been the route that Erasmus has been following, and with good effect. But the reality of the situation is that players can fall off the pace during this process and hard decisions may have to be made.
As former Bok coach Nick Mallett said in a chat on my youtube channel this week, the beauty is that Rassie takes decisions purely on data. Players are given tasks and set goals by the coaches and if they meet that, then all is good. The Bok coaches will quickly pick up which players have fallen off the pace.
Again, this isn’t about one bad performance. The Boks will never throw a player away - especially a World Cup winner - after one poor performance. But the trust the coaching team have earned in leading the Boks to two World Cups should be trusted to manage this process through.
ITALY WERE BRAVE
After all, Italy’s brave performance - after making 128 first half tackles and missing 17 regular players - was a wakeup call for the Boks. Across the ocean, a second string France pushing New Zealand to the brink was another. France has some of the best depth of any team in the world, and they will be a force to deal with in Australia in 2027.
The Boks know full well the target they have on their backs, and they also know the value of a full World Cup cycle to develop players. Other nations have their plans, and they will be targeting the Bok crown in two years' time.
Erasmus will want the best mix of youth and experience, of X-factor players and leadership in the team and the current squad gives them a lot of options for different talents in different positions.
LOFTUS WASN’T A TRAIN SMASH
Loftus wasn’t a train smash. The team still won handsomely but that second half was a wake-up call. The Boks have held off on the need to offload aging stars for a while now, but that second half was a reminder that time waits for nobody and you just have to be one per cent off your game to lose your edge.
The review will be brutal, and Erasmus’ plans would have taken a dent given the way some players played. Erasmus was clear that 14 of the 23 were announced internally before the weekend’s game, and a number of players know they will play this week.
The changes won’t come immediately but players will have been put on notice. And unless they meet the challenge that is set out for them, they will drop out and make way for younger talent.
That won’t be a travesty, but it will be a delicate process, both internally and in the public eye.
But the Boks know they have a challenge on their hands.
How they navigate the next few months will be very interesting to watch.