Simnikiwe Xabanisa: Of the Springboks' many post-match traditions - putting up with the media and the infamous kontiki included - there's one I've always been fond of.

It's the awarding of the man of the match award by the team and their management. The Boks persist with this after each match, occasionally agreeing with Supersport's assessment of the best player of the game.

The good thing about it is that even the player who is "erroneously" given the standout status also submits to the team ethos and does the best he can to hide the oversized cheque that tends to go with the MOM vote.

What I like about it is the implied honesty of it all.

Most of us will only accept praise, and criticism for that matter, if it comes from colleagues, because we reckon they ought to know us, as they are in the trenches with us.

There's a similar thought process with the Boks, which has frequently shown itself in how valued the Player's Player of the Year award tends to be at their year-end functions.

Unfortunately, it's a trait that can also lead to them being a touch insular, if coach Peter de Villiers's comments from Monday are anything to go by.

De Villiers was quoted as saying last weekend's game against Australia had achieved a lot more than it was given credit for and that it was an important step forward in the Boks' defence of the Webb Ellis Trophy.

I'll happily admit that I'm one of the guilty few who didn't give the Boks enough credit from twice coming back from 14 points down to win by 13.

But to suggest there was a lot to learn from that match is plain disingenuous.

Immediately after the match, De Villiers admitted that the game wasn't one for the ages by saying: "You can't always get the perfect Test match," with John Smit adding that the Boks couldn't learn anything about themselves until the two sides had tightened their defences.

Yet two days later, the match had grown considerably in stature in De Villiers' mind to the point where it was seen in the same light as the huge turningpoint for Jake White's 2006 team, when they finally beat England at Twickenham.

To come back to De Villiers' charge about the team not getting enough credit after Saturday, it wasn't the same as the media getting sidetracked by Schalk Burger's eye-gouging incident and forgetting the Boks had won a British & Irish Lions Test series last year.

Saturday's victory had an alltoo-familiar look about it, with the Boks harking back to the days when they relied on the opposition's travel to SA, altitude and their own desperation not to lose to win a Test match.

And in keeping with the lunacy of needlessly mentioning the Boks' 100% support of Bees Roux, he then used the L-word (laager), to describe how the team were protecting themselves from outsiders intent on doing them harm.

Is it really harmful if we judge the Springboks on the standards they've set as the world champions? It's time for honest self-appraisal.