Springbok rugby has lost its aura of intimidation and excellence. Good teams no longer fear the Boks and now reasonably expect to win‚ rather than hope to win.Ireland down to 14 men deservedly beat the Springboks 26-20 at Newlands on Saturday. It drove yet another dagger on the myth that Springbok rugby is second only the All Blacks on any given day.And even that sentence is problematic because it’s has become acceptable to be considered second to the All Blacks.  New coach Allister Coetzee‚ who can’t be blamed for the fall in Bok rugby standards – at least not directly – chose to rather reflect that other teams have caught up rather than the Boks stumbling backwards in his post match assessment on Saturday night. But evidence is increasingly stacked against that theory. In the last 12 months the Boks have lost to Argentina for the first time‚ Ireland at home for the first time and most gallingly to Japan. Ireland now stands on the brink of becoming the third side in history after the British & Irish Lions and New Zealand‚ to win a three-Test series in South Africa. That loss to Japan last year finally exposed the myth that Bok rugby‚ through its historical success‚ had a natural right to be considered among the games’ best. The Springboks are a mid-table team in a sport where depth is shallow at international level compared to football. The All Blacks are the gold standard‚ which all sides aim to emulate. Ireland‚ England Wales and Australia have all improved in their chase to hang on to NZ.The distance between those teams and the All Blacks is still significant but they’re closer to the Kiwi coattails than the Springboks are. In fact‚ the Boks are watching the All Blacks disappear over the horizon. In the space of 24 hours over the past weekend SA ‘A’ lost to England Saxons in Bloemfontein‚ the Junior Springboks were beaten by Argentina in Manchester and of course the Springboks were felled by Ireland at Newlands. Off the field the Springboks can’t attract a permanent sponsor‚ quality players are flocking to Europe and elected administrators from the 14 provincial unions continue to make decisions in a multi-billion rand industry based on petty politics rather than national interest. There is no coherent playing strategy and based on the evidence of SA’s national teams in recent seasons‚ the much-vaunted Rugby Department under Rassie Erasmus has been a failure. Erasmus is off to join Irish club Munster at the end of the month. When it was announced he was leaving there was a general feeling that SA Rugby was losing one of its greatest minds.  But results suggest that the Rugby Department is failing at a professional level. The last time the Boks won any meaningful silverware was the 2009 Tri-Nations. The Junior Boks have won one World Championship since the tournament moved to its current under-20 format in 2008. And that was on home soil in 2012 after they scraped into the quarter-finals following a pool stage loss to Ireland. The last time a SA team won Super Rugby was the Bulls in 2010‚ and since then only the Sharks have appeared in the final.The Blitzboks have only won the World Sevens Series once‚ also back in 2009 and the Currie Cup standards have dipped alarmingly. Players in SA appear to lack the basic skills of passing and an appreciation of space. There is a new era of coaches at Super Rugby level‚ but their impact has yet to make a mark. Erasmus and his department will point to lack of access to players‚ who are largely coached and nurtured in a provincial environment‚ as a factor in their failure. But what is the point of the Rugby Department in that case? Some naysayers will‚ and have‚ tried to blame the Springboks’ problems on transformation‚ which is laughable. Were Lionel Mapoe‚ Elton Jantjies and Lwazi Mvovo not worthy of their places in the first Test against Ireland? All were the form players in their positions in Super Rugby. Coetzee has taken over the reins of Springbok rugby at the most critical time in the sport’s history. Playing resources is not the deep well we think it is and the power game that has served the little antelope so well for more than a century‚ is no longer enough to win consistently against more intelligent and skilled teams. The entire way the Springboks‚ and South African players in general play‚ is in need of an overhaul. It’s more than Coetzee signed up for‚ but he is somehow going to have to find a way of polishing the shop window that is Springbok rugby. If he does that‚ the rest might follow. - TMG Digital..