Stephen Jones, in his Rolling Maul blog for The Times, is concerned at the lack of criticism being levelled at the Springboks squad.

"Last night, the wraps came off the Springbok squad for the Test series and this morning, there was a deathly silence. Very, very worrying for the Lions. Every time I have toured here, the announcement of any South African squad has been greeted by a barrage of criticism, horror, inter-provincial jousting and multi-media savaging. "I have combed the morning papers and websites and caught some of the sporting radio programmes. Apart from the odd outbreak of muted whingeing and the priceless observation from Peter de Villiers that Earl Rose, a young and unproven fly half, is the equivalent of Tiger Woods, there has been nothing. This country is united. It likes the Boks squad. "It suggests that the squad is settled and dangerous. It is hard to attack in terms of finding weaknesses for the Lions to exploit. Fly half? Morne Steyn, the likely No 10, is not a contender for the pantheon but is perfectly serviceable and Ruan Pienaar, the other contender, was superb at Twickenham last season. Not much change there."