Proper planning will extend golden era for Springboks

South African rugby has the ingredients - talent, structures and leadership - to succeed at the highest level for years to come

- By Jon Cardinelli

Is this the greatest rugby team of all time? The debate continues to rage in the wake of the Springboks' second consecutive Rugby Championship title triumph. No team has won more major titles during a specific period.

Since 2018, the group coached by Rassie Erasmus and led by Siya Kolisi has won back-to-back World Cups, a series against the British & Irish Lions and three Rugby Championships the most recent tournaments back-to-back.

Are they better than the great All Blacks side of the 2010s, who clinched consecutive World Cups (2011 and 2015) and won 90% of their Tests between global tournaments, yet they failed to win a Lions series (2017) outright?

Back in 2023, the more objective commentators and fans may have answered in the negative. But since the start of the 2024 season, the Boks have claimed 18 victories in 22 Tests for a victory record of 82%. They have taken their game forward since winning their most recent World Cup title, blending a traditional South African approach with a more potent attack.

There's plenty of evidence to suggest that they will continue to improve in the lead-up to the 2027 World Cup, where they will try to secure an unprecedented hat-trick of global titles, as well as ahead of the subsequent tournament in 2031.

The structures that were implemented across the age groups more than a decade ago are starting to bear fruit, and more recent developments are taking the game in South Africa to the next level.

With this in mind, there's good reason to believe that there may be more success to come for the Boks and other local teams.

Junior Bok boom

Last year, the Junior Boks finished seventh at the World Rugby U20 Championship staged in South Africa. Another failure in an age-group tournament was followed by a familiar question: why is a country with one of the biggest pools of schoolboy talent struggling to perform at the global showpiece?