What we witnessed on Saturday was a complete lack of passion, a complete lack of understanding about what it means to be a Springbok, says Dudley Carstens.
I saw a post on Facebook where this one guy burned his Springbok jersey after the 57-15 humiliation by the All Blacks in Durban on Saturday.
Hopefully he got it as a present and didn’t just burn his money because he is angry with the national team.
Either way, I believe he is not the only one who will feel that way today.
What we witnessed on Saturday was a complete lack of passion, complete lack of understanding about what it means to be a Springbok and poor knowledge of what it means to the people of the Rainbow Nation to stand up to the Kiwis on home soil.
If those 23 players really are the best that South Africa can put on the park then they still get their backsides handed to them like that, we are in serious trouble.
It might even be worse than fans’ biggest Bok nightmare.
After Saturday’s performance, I can understand that some people would want to throw their jersey in the fire.
It’s been a few years since the guys in the Green and Gold have given us something to cheer about.
And while Allister Coetzee and his coaching staff will have to take the blame for the current situation, the reality is we are actually not as good as we would like to believe.
Since the inception of the Rugby Championship in 2012, the Springboks have never won the tournament.
In fact, they have lost more games than they have won in this tournament.
Even when it was still the Tri-Nations series, they were third-best of three on the overall table between years 1996 and 2011, having lost 43 of their 72 matches.
It’s been nine years since they won the World Cup back in 2007. And what have they achieved at the global showpiece since then?
A quarter-final exit to Australia in 2011 - when the country took hands in blaming referee Bryce Lawrence for the defeat.
Then last year, coach Heyneke Meyer’s Bokke lost to Japan in their first match of the tournament before eventually winning third place in the competition.
There is no doubt that we are a passionate bunch of supporters, and with the amount of talent at our disposal, I believe we are quite right in believing that we should be among the best teams in the world.
My problem, though, is that I don’t believe the best players in our country get to the top.
And that’s why the Springbok is wounded at the moment.
We need more academies where skill-specific training is done, we need to identify rough diamonds and make our national pool bigger.
We need to make opportunities to develop your game available to everyone who shows a little promise.
Only then will we stop the Bok from bleeding out. And who knows, one day we might really be as consistent as the All Blacks.
Daily Voice