"We have been told ad infinitum that this is a great South African side, stacked with world class players, but peel away the cocksure posturing and there is an insecurity that stretches back to the 2007 World Cup, and the nagging sense that they are world champions by default. Why? Because the side universally recognized as the best in the world at that time, their arch-rivals, New Zealand, were dumped out in that extraordinary Cardiff quarter-final by France, and the two teams never met. It was an impression reinforced by the Springboks coming within a whisker of being beaten by Fiji in their Marseilles quarter-final. By contrast, when England won the 2003 World Cup the general concensus was that the best side in the world finished first.
South Africa's ledger in the last Tri-Nations tournament also does nothing to suggest that the Lions will face a team of world beaters at the top of their game. They finished bottom of the table and lost two of their three home games, one to New Zealand and the other, more surprisingly, to Australia. Nor was their unbeaten autumn tour of European an unqualified success, with narrow victories over Wales and Scotland - who gave their scrum a battering - almost forgotten in the euphoria of their record win over England at Twickenham.
It is worth remembering too, that the England team that the Springboks trounced soon after Martin Johnson's appointment as manager were at a very low ebb, having already been well-beaten on home turf by Australia and New Zealand, with their defence, discipline, and confidence shot to pieces.
It is not lost on Springbok supporters either that the parallels between this tour and the 2-1 series win by the 1997 Lions are uncanny. Twelve years ago they had Carel du Plessis, an untried, inexperienced coach, who went into the series without a high percentage goal-kicker of the calibre of Neil Jenkins, whose accuracy was instrumental in the Lions victory.
De Villiers' coaching credentials in top level rugby were similarly sketchy when he replaced Jake White, and his failure so far to unearth a crack goal-kicker, with neither Pienaar nor either of the Steyns, Morne and Frans, established as 70 per cent success-rate test marksmen, has made Springbok supporters edgy as the Durban showdown approaches.
By comparison the Lions have three, with Stephen Jones and Ronan O'Gara better than 70 per cent on this tour, and James Hook showing with his late winner against Western Province that he has the long-distance kicks covered now that Leigh Halfpenny has returned home.
Pienaar has been dogged by knee and ankle ligament injuries this season and the rumours in Durban last week were that he was still being nursed through training sessions. What is not in dispute is that he has not played for five weeks or that the former scrum half is still very much a novice as a test fly half."
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brilliant. 
