Victor Matfield's admission yesterday that four consecutive defeats was unacceptable came as a pleasant surprise - it means that at least one Springbok knows that this is South Africa we are living in, and not Romania.
The way some people reacted to defeat at Soccer City you might have thought this was a third rate rugby nation. For Romania, Italy and Scotland, a last minute home defeat to the All Blacks would certainly have been something to celebrate. Given the way they have slipped, maybe for England and Wales too.
But right now South Africa has at its disposal its golden era of players, and the right of supporters to expect continued domination is no myth if you look at the Super 14 results since the end of 2006.
In the last four Super 14 seasons, the leading South African team, the Bulls, has won three titles. In that time the Sharks have also appeared in one final and one semi-final. The Stormers made the final this year, and only one missed bonus point prevented them from joining the Sharks in the semis in 2008, and the Sharks failed by just one to join the Bulls in the top four in 2009.
This is an era where South Africa has dominated the competition, and the Bulls in particular have become almost unbeatable at home. The Stormers beat all Kiwi opponents this year by a minimum of 12 points - home and away - and they made players who look so classy in the All Black jersey appear so average for their franchises.
So a win over the All Blacks at altitude in front of 94 000 mostly passionate South Africans who were scarily hostile to the visitors should not have been a case of the Springboks tasting glory, as the national coach suggested when he said the Boks were "seven minutes away from glory".
A win should have been almost the expected result on a day where the atmosphere and emotion should have given the Boks at least a 10 point start. John Smit's men did well to hold the All Blacks out until the last few minutes, but watching the game unemotionally a second time has confirmed the initial view that the All Blacks were significantly the better team and should have won by more.
The Boks had two scoring chances, one which they scored from off a tap penalty, the other when Schalk Burger charged a Dan Carter kick down early in the second half. The All Blacks had several try-scoring chances, and Carter was also uncharacteristically wayward with his kicking. From the vantage point of the Soccer City press box, the Boks always seemed to be scrambling and just hanging in.
Yet afterwards Peter de Villiers said it was a match where his team proved they could win at any venue against any opponents on any given day. They didn't win, and if they can't beat the All Blacks at altitude in front of nearly 100 000 spectators, when are they going to beat them again?
Instead of coming out and admitting the Boks have been getting it wrong and telling us how he is going to be going about doing it, De Villiers spoke at press conferences in Pretoria as if the Boks had beaten the All Blacks. The denial evident in that attitude is the biggest stumbling block to the Boks reaching next year's World Cup in the strong position they should be.
During the De Villiers era there appears to be an alternate reality that some people choose to live in. It started in 2008, when it was clear that the All Blacks and Australia had to rebuild after losing so many key players overseas. Conversely, the Boks retained the core of their World Cup winning squad. Yet somehow it was considered acceptable that they finished last in the Tri-Nations.
The following year's domination of the tournament only served to confirm that the expectation of 2008 was not misplaced, and the alternative reality is now expressed in the return to the bad old days, with honourable home defeat based on guts and passion being celebrated.
With the players South Africa boasts, being in with a chance of winning any game that the Boks play should be a given. They should be perennially in the top two of world rugby, and they should always stand a chance of beating any other team on any given day.
That is because this is not Romania we are living in, but the most fertile breeding ground for rugby talent in the world. I have no doubt that if there was the same commitment to excellence and professionalism at national level that there is in the top Super 14 franchises, the Boks would today be playing to clinch their third successive Tri-Nations title.
South Africa has already won two World Cups. This was a time to prove that the Boks had genuine champion status by consistently dominating during the years between the World Cups. They have failed to do so.