The Springboks have assembled their most experienced pack of forwards ever for their final Rugby World Cup (RWC) warm-up match against New Zealand.
From Steven Kitshoff all the way to Duane Vermeulen, the packs boasts 592 caps, with a staggering average of 74 per player.
Across the game's history, few other front-line international teams would have been able to put such a wealth of experience in their starting line-up.
While the Boks will throw a tonne of time-hardened intellectual property at the All Blacks, it does beg a question or two about what they seek from this encounter and how they hope it will impact their RWC campaign.
If you are going to deploy all your forged-in-fire, weather-beaten, gone-through-the-mill, grizzled grinders against the All Blacks and come up short, surely you leave yourself open to psychological scars.
Bok captain Siya Kolisi and, to be fair, everyone else of the green and gold persuasion have made it clear it is a game they take very seriously. The way they have selected their pack backs that up.
Of course, Friday night's match is merely a warm-up game, which means failure can be left on the side of the English Channel of little consequence.
It is, however, worth remembering that the individuals numbered one to eight who will run out under Twickenham's lights started the Springboks' opening RWC clash against the All Blacks at International Stadium Yokohama four years ago. On that evening they gave a more than decent account of themselves, but two defensive team errors contributed richly to their 23-13 defeat.
History shows the Boks, with backs to the wall, regrouped and won six matches in a row to claim rugby's ultimate prize at the same stadium six weeks later.
Of course, Friday night's match is merely a warm-up game, which means failure can be left on the side of the English Channel of little consequence.
Experience is priceless at a RWC.
One can perhaps also argue the team's experience at the 2015 RWC stood them in good stead at the tournament in Japan.
That year, Heyneke Meyer's team oozed experience, but perhaps lamentably, also osteoporosis. The most experienced Bok starting team ever (891 caps) was assembled for the pool match against Samoa and it featured three centurions and six others who had or were playing in their 50th Test.
The Boks earlier infamously lost to Japan and later fell agonisingly short to the All Blacks in the semifinal.
Duane Vermeulen, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi, Frans Malherbe and Trevor Nyakane (who is on the bench), who are all in action on Friday night, put that experience behind them.
The Boks have certainly learnt from their earlier failures.
In 2011 a Bok squad laden with winners from the 2007 tournament set off with coach Peter de Villiers to New Zealand in search of more glory. They fell short in the quarterfinals against Australia in Wellington.
Springbok head coach Jacques Nienaber, who was a close observer, took the lessons he could from that experience. Earlier this month, just before his team departed South Africa for this RWC, he noted the folly of selecting players who could not carry their load in training.
Too many of the experienced players he recalled, carried niggling injuries that precluded them from training on Mondays and at times Tuesday. Some would surface on the prematch Captain's Run.
He was careful not to make the same mistake this year.
Experience brings that kind of foresight.
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