If it ain't tough, it ain't fun

Winning too easily can become tedious.

At least that's what I discovered as a kid, playing all sorts of games against a brother eight years younger.

Cricket, table-tennis, rugby, whatever - it was always a walkover. Obviously.

Such victories were hollow, and soon my challenge was trying to make our sibling rivalry more competitive.

Even playing alone with a rugby ball in the back yard, my fantasies involved scoring an injury-time try to clinch the Grand Challenge and Currie Cup finals (there was no Rugby World Cup then).

It was always a one-point victory. I never imagined scoring the 20th try in a 140-0 drubbing - that would have been childish.

The ultimate is a close victory. So I used to give my brother a healthy head-start where I could.

Playing to 21 points in table-tennis, for example, I would let him race to an 18-2 or 19-2 lead, and then I would try to win the game from there.

More often than not I would pull it off, but every now and then I'd lose - avoiding unforced errors all the time is impossible.

The Springboks reminded me of this aspect of my childhood when they nearly lost against Argentina on Saturday night.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting the Boks deliberately played poorly, or that Argentina were as ineffective as my brother when he was eight years old.

I do suspect, however, that the Springbok attitude was a tad too flippant, but, once they realised they had a game on their hands, they showed great character by fighting back for the win.

That took courage.

Sure, the Boks have some problems they need to solve, but these have the potential to be sorted out.

After the disaster of 2003 and the underwhelming reign of Rudolf Straeuli, we know the Boks can bounce back from anything.

It's a pity the same isn't true of other sports in South Africa, like female swimming.

South Africa's first seven Olympic swimming medals were all delivered by females - four before isolation and the first three afterwards.

In fact, only three South African women have won Olympic gold medals throughout history, and two of them were swimmers - Penny Heyns and Joan Harrison.

But times have changed. Women's swimming in South Africa is weak, and this was again highlighted at the Youth Olympic Games that is on the go in Nanjing.

The winning times in 12 of the 14 individual female events in China were quicker than the winning times clocked at the SA Swimming Championships in April.

And nine of those were faster than the South African records.

There are some promising local youngsters around, and hopefully they can make an impact internationally in years to come, although that's unlikely to be before the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Men's swimming is in a stronger position, thanks largely to Chad Le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh, both gold medallists at London 2012.

Van der Burgh was flawless in winning the 100m breaststroke in a world record time, leading from start to finish. Le Clos couldn't beat the 200m butterfly world record, but he captured the public's imagination because he came from behind to pip legendary Michael Phelps at the wall to win by five-hundredths of a second.

It's human nature to enjoy close shaves - so the unhappy Bok fans should savour Saturday's win.

After all, this Rugby Championship is only going to get tougher.