It's hard to like them, but the Springboks are indisputably the best side in the world now and have been over the last two years, writes GERRY THORNLEY

IN THE midst of sporting excellence elsewhere, be it the hurling Cats or King Roger, rugby’s slow-burning start to the season has yet to make a significant imprint. Perhaps, too, Saturday’s Tri-Nations decider between the best two sides on the planet would invariably make domestic matters pale for the moment.

The Springboks are indisputably the best side in the world now and have been over the last two years. Their 32-29 win over the All Blacks in Hamilton was affirmation of that.

With Jon Smith as their articulate and humble figurehead, it is very, very easy to acknowledge as much, to respect and admire them; less so to actually like them.

They are not exactly a joyously thrilling template for global supremacy.

The key to their success is that they have so many of the world’s best players now – a World XV would be heavily populated with Springboks – and they do all the basics so well.

It’s doubtful that there’s been a better lock pairing in the professional era than Bakkies Botha and Victor Matfield, who effectively make their own lineout impregnable as well as an irritant to the opposition’s.

Their kicking game, and chasing, is magnificent, and their defence is all-enveloping. They must practice their kick-chase for hours, for, with the exception of JP Pietersen (who actually injured himself and missed the finale in trying a chip ahead), they all can kick the ball to exactly where they intend.

They frequently score through their offensive defence, with interceptors par excellence in Jean de Villiers and Bryan Habana. They prey off opposition mistakes and punish them ruthlessly, and are astonishingly alert to the possibilities off turnover ball or broken play.

Fourie du Preez is an incredibly influential player in virtually every match he plays, and was involved three times in the move from which he scored the breakthrough try on Saturday with his kick, chase and blindside plunge for the line.

They also come up with some well-rehearsed set-piece moves – vividly illustrated by the reprise of Habana’s try through the middle off scrum ball against Australia three weeks ago with which the Boks turned around the second Lions Test.

However, they hardly ever score off multi-phase attacks. They are also quite cynical/smart (dilute to taste), and last Saturday Nigel Owens allowed them to live offside with impunity as well as slow down the All Blacks’ ball. They are excellent front-runners, though their tendency to slip into a minimalist defensive shell has helped Australia and New Zealand eat into big leads in two of the last three weekends.

Like Botha, Bismarck du Plessis is the kind of player you’d definitely want with you rather than against you. His darts are on the bull’s eye, and last Saturday he ripped out three balls for clean-as-whistle turnovers which he presented on a plate to team-mates.

To have him as well as Heinrich Brüssow in your side makes it almost impossible for opponents to go through phases. A pity that, no less than Botha, du Plessis has to indulge in all that after-the-whistle jostling, pushing and sledging.

In any event, though the Boks cut loose against Australia three weeks ago in Perth, and can be permitted one off-day such as the one in Brisbane a week later, theirs is essentially a low-risk game.

Some of their matches in the Tri-Nations were dismally uninspiring feasts of kicking and famines of running.

The All Blacks were more exciting to watch, but with the World Cup opener between New Zealand and Tonga in Auckland’s Eden Park two years away as of last Wednesday, the gnashing of teeth thereabouts can be heard this side of the globe.

But maybe this isn’t the worst case scenario for the All Blacks, for in the past they have tended to peak in between World Cups.

Two years before each of the last three World Cups, in 1997, 2001 and 2005, they were Tri-Nations champions and the number one side in the world, also whitewashing the Lions in ’05. Much good it did them when it came to their Holy Grail of the William Webb Ellis trophy.

You’d have to wonder if the core of this Boks team will have the legs and the hunger to defend their title in two years’ time, and whether the haemorrhaging of talent abroad gives them sufficient back-up. And two of their three wins over the All Blacks this year were at home. (The Pumas’ entry is long overdue.)

The All Blacks themselves desperately need to bring back the likes of Carl Hayman and Chris Jack, in the hope that they have been fattened unduly by all their euros, to give their tight five some savvy and solidity.

Their utter inability to protect their own scrum and lineout ball in the 31-19 defeat in Durban on day three of the Tri-Nations was embarrassing, as was their lineout last Saturday.

It remains an unresolved Achilles heel going back some years now.

This is partly down to accommodating Brad Thorn, who is no top-of-the-range lineout operator but is a wonderful hardened all-round oul’ warrior. Besides, any team with Richie McCaw and Dan Carter – both of whom were hastened back from injury – has to have a chance against anyone, and they still nearly pulled off an amazing comeback in Hamilton through their more inventive running and handling.

One caveat though. Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith have been in charge of the All Blacks for 81 games.

Clive Woodward did manage to deliver the World Cup in his second four-year cycle before outstaying his welcome, but that was with a rejigged coaching staff, and as the reigns of Bernard Laporte and Eddie O’Sullivan demonstrated at the last World Cup, coaching tickets can become stale.

Robbie Deans, by comparison, has barely been running the Wallabies for a year.

Ireland’s primary World Cup opponents looked a little rudderless when Stirling Mortlock was injured, and perhaps the death of the ELVs hasn’t helped their desire to play a form of quasi-rugby league.

The Boks pack bullied them off the park three weeks ago and it didn’t help either that Luke Burgess appeared to completely lose his confidence and his way.

Even so, they have Matt Giteau and Rocky Elsom, their scrum has improved and there’s good young talent coming through.

And, most of all, as history has shown us at this midway point in World Cup cycles, two years is a long time in rugby.