It has been said that 2009 was South Africa's best rugby year and that John Smit's Boks are the best of all time.
The huge depth of South African rugby has also been emphasised, notably by national coach Peter de Villiers.
That it has been a good year is undisputable. A great year, however, it was not.
There has been a lot of hype about the series win over the British and Irish Lions. The reality, however, is than the Lions had won only two series in 10 previous tours to South Africa since 1903.
The Lions were this time beaten 2-1 in an acrimonious series, while the Springboks won the Tri-Nations with only a single loss from six matches. How good the opposition were is immaterial. In Test rugby a win is a win.
And in the Springbok jersey, a loss is a loss.
The year-end tour - or perhaps "tours" with two different coaches and the 37 players plus enforcements only together for a single week out of five - was a rude awakening.
From the loss against a Leicester Tigers side who were without 12 of their regulars and another against an under strength Saracens, to the losses against France and Ireland in the Tests, it was a disaster.
And the tour was included in a year that in many aspects was one of the Boks' worst yet and definitely not close to the best in Bok history.
From a 78% winning record after the Tri-Nations, De Villiers' side slumped to a rather average 67% in Tests - and if the two midweek tour games are added, to 57%.
Their 2009 Test record was not as good as that of 2005 (eight wins and one draw from 12 games), 2004 (nine wins from 13 matches), 1998 (11 from 12) or 1995 (10 from 10).
The 2009 season also produced their fourth worst record of all time in overseas Tests, with only three wins from six games.
Strange replacement calls such as the (regular) cheapening of Test caps by giving players a run of 73 seconds at the end of a Test, and replacing a loosehead with a tighthead while there was a loosehead replacement on the bench, were indicative of poor planning and tactics.
They nearly lost the first Test against the Lions through silly replacement calls by coach De Villiers and ultimately won after a desperate last-second tackle by Morne Steyn on Ugo Monye.
The second was also won by Steyn with a last-gasp penalty from within his own half after the Lions, on top, were hamstrung by the enforced uncontested scrums. The Springboks won the first two Tests 26-21 and 28-25.
In the third Test the Boks opted to make 10 changes. The Lions were forced to do the same due to injuries.
The changes in South Africa's side gave the Boks the chance to show their depth against the Lions' dirt trackers who were weakened by injury withdrawals before and during the tour.
The visiting side was the best they could put together, while the Boks could pick from their perceived player depth.
The Lions won 28-9. In the Tri-Nations, the Springboks were a cross-kick away from defeat against the All Blacks in Hamilton, and they were fortunate that they played the Kiwis without Dan Carter in the first two Tests.
Journalist and former Springbok communications manager Mark Keohane summed it up in the Business Day newspaper.
"The Boks lost to a half-decent French team, a Leicester team missing 12 of their regulars, a Saracens SA XV that would not end in the top six of the Currie Cup, made Italy look like Six Nations contenders and should have been put away by 20 points by Ireland, who in the last year have been the most consistent international team," Keohane wrote.
"That the Boks were named international team of the year after taking a beating from the Irish was as close as it comes to an Irish joke, and it wasn't a particularly funny one.
"Australia losing to Scotland gave some perspective to the Tri-Nations campaign. New Zealand's changing of coaching roles and reversal to a more conservative approach, orchestrated by the world's best flyhalf, Dan Carter, who incidentally did not play in the two defeats against the Boks in SA, adds more reality to the quality of the Tri-Nations win, and the All Blacks' fitness in Marseilles ended any arguments that the Boks lost because they were simply too tired.
"The All Blacks, in club and provincial games, played as much rugby as the Boks and the Test sides have played even more matches this year than the Springboks."
Keohane went on to add, "the best team in the world does not get smashed in Brisbane, Leicester, Wembley, Toulouse, Dublin, Johannesburg and sneak two three-point wins in Pretoria and Hamilton.
"The Boks are not as tired as we think and they are not as good as we think. But they could be the best if every agenda was put to one side and decisions were made that benefit the Boks and confront issues instead of blaming referees, fatigue and glorifying five-point losses."
"Your scrum strength is determined by your tighthead and John Smit is not an international tighthead.
Can Div (De Villiers) really now still claim to have enough technical knowledge to coach a national side?" asks former Western Province prop Tank Lanning on the website sport24.
One of the negatives of the season was the lack of openness regarding the year-end team selection. "Window-dressing at its most crass," Keohane calls it.
De Villiers is commendably building for after 2011. But was Bandise Maku, only seven months younger than Adriaan Strauss, the answer?
Strauss will turn 26 only after the 2011 World Cup - and once he had joined the team in Europe as a replacement, he was preferred to Maku in the Tests.
Why select the Bulls' two reserve hookers while their number one, Derick Kuun, stays at home?
Why was Jean Deyzel overlooked and then, as a late tour replacement, preferred to Davon Raubenheimer and Ashley Johnson at Test level?
No honest answers to these and other similarly relevant questions have been forthcoming.
The Springboks' results in 2009:
Lions tour:
Won 26-21 in Durban
Won 28-25 in Pretoria
Lost 28-9 in Johannesburg
Tri-Nations:
Beat New Zealand 28-19 in Bloemfontein
Beat New Zealand 31-19 in Durban
Beat Australia 29-17 in Cape Town
Beat Australia 32-25 in Perth
Lost to Australia 21-6 in Brisbane
Beat New Zealand 32-25 in Hamilton
Year-end tour:
Lost to Leicester Tigers 22-17
Lost to France 20-13 in Toulouse
Beat Italy 32-10 in Udine
Lost to Saracens 24-23 at Wembley
Lost to Ireland 15-10 in Dublin
