Gavin Rich, writing on Supersport, sees similarities between the 2009 Springboks and their 1998 counterparts - and has some words of warning.

"When you have followed or covered rugby in South Africa for a long time, and you possess a reasonable memory, it is sometimes impossible not to spot the recurring themes and arguments. "For instance, while much of the country celebrates the Springbok feat of completing the home leg of the Tri-Nations unbeaten, there are still many critics bemoaning the way they are do it. “What has happened to the spirit of adventure?” ask some and “Surely we should be scoring more tries!” lament others. "This is nothing new for it has happened several times, including in the aftermath of the 2007 World Cup triumph. But for me the current debates are most reminiscent of 1998, the year the Boks won the Tri-Nations for the first time without losing a game. "Like now, suffocation rugby was pretty much the order of the day, something that was suited to that team’s strength if you consider that the Boks of that period boasted arguably the best loose trio in the world and that in Henry Honiball and Pieter Muller, who stood together in the flyhalf/inside centre axis, they had rugby’s equivalent of the Rock of Gibraltar."