The announcement of a Springbok rugby team used to be one of the great South African traditions. It would bring families together, usually around an old Bush valve radio as the names crackled over the ether. Or to join a crowd in 1931 blocking Cape Town's Long Street, where the Metropole Hotel was the venue for naming the team to tour Britain.Today it's a cursory business, done without much fanfare. Except in a Rugby World Cup year. Heyneke Meyer's rabbits will be pulled from a hat live on SuperSport on Friday.I look forward to such events, even if it's just for the nostalgia of recalling the clipped tones of an announcer from 1960 revealing the names of men we would follow intently from October to February that summer, losing just once and drawing twice in 34 games. All engagements for 6pm on Friday have been put on hold to watch 31 Springboks parade.Whoever they are, the 31 who set off for London are likely to have the backing of the nation. We might haggle over Pollard or Lambie - or even Elton - or Scarra or Strauss, or Burger or Brüssow - or both - but come late Friday those partisan prejudices can be shed.And Meyer can sleep peacefully again, knowing the hardest part of the job will be over. And if he thinks it's been difficult, he should take a look at some of his rivals.Vern Cotter, the Scotland coach who will face Meyer's Boks on October 3, must agonise over his captain. Does he drop Greig Laidlaw, who has served the team well, or opt for a 22-year-old scrumhalf of Spanish extraction who rejoices in the name of Sam Hidalgo-Clyne? It will be Laidlaw's accurate kicking game against Hidalgo-Clyne's high-tempo style. Or does he consider the pressing claims of Henry Pyrgos, who was outstanding against Ireland and ended Scotland's six-Test run of defeats with a winning try against Italy?Samoa, possibly the Boks' most dangerous opponents in Group B, are always a team in dire straits. At the last World Cup they didn't even have balls with which to practise. Their union is notoriously corrupt and the players threatened to strike last year. Those problems do not seem to have been resolved.Once the Boks have won their group, they can focus on their opponents in the quarterfinals, who could be any one of England, Australia, Wales - or even Fiji. Until then, Meyer can feel satisfied with the men he is about to settle on for the Rugby World Cup 2015.For what it's worth, my 31 would be: Willie le Roux, Jessie Kriel, Bryan Habana, JP Pietersen, Lwazi Mvovo, Lionel Mapoe, Jan Serfontein, Damian de Allende, Handré Pollard, Pat Lambie, Elton Jantjies, Fourie du Preez, Rudi Paige, Ruan Pienaar, Duane Vermeulen, Siya Kolisi, Schalk Burger, Willem Alberts, Heinrich Brüssow, Warren Whiteley, Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jannie du Plessis, Tendai Mtawarira, Trevor Nyakane, Frans Malherbe, Vincent Koch, Bismarck du Plessis, Scarra Ntubeni and Adriaan Strauss. The World Cup is no country for old men.The Springbok squad announcement will air live on Friday from 5.30pm, on SuperSport 1..