The four match Springbok end of year tour in November will mark the halfway point between them retaining the Rugby World Cup title in Paris and them going out to make it a three-peat in Australia. It will also be part of the toughest phase of their buildup to 2027.

The All Blacks are due in this country next year to play three tests in the first instalment of a series that will be played every six years and which it is hoped will become rugby’s version of cricket’s iconic Ashes series between Australia and England.

That is something for the Boks to aim at as a stand alone challenge. And yes, it will be tough. A seismic standoff between two great rugby nations, with a fourth game to be scheduled at a neutral venue.

But it is the subject of venue that makes what the world champions face next year pale in comparison to what they will be facing in 2025. Last year the Boks beat the All Blacks twice, but both games were played in South Africa.

This year though the Boks are going to New Zealand to play their two Castle Lager Rugby Champions games against their fiercest and most respected rivals.

BOK WIN IN 2023 STILL RANKLES FRANCE

And as per the schedule that was released last week, that will be just the start of the away clashes with members of World Rugby’s big four club as they play both France and Ireland on their November tour.

The Boks lost to both those teams when they undertook an identical tour in 2022. They will have a score to settle. They haven’t beaten Ireland away since 2012.

But then their opponents will have a point to prove too. Nothing rankles the French more than the memory of the way the Boks knocked them out of their own World Cup at the quarterfinal stage. They are still bleating about the refereeing in that game too.

A win over the Boks in a rare meeting between the two giants and the two early favourites for 2027 won’t provide a complete salve to the wounds of 2023, but it will provide a partial one.

That it’s going to be a weird year for the Boks, with the home part of the international season a lot less challenging than the away part, was confirmed at the weekend.

Italy, who come here for two tests in July, are a growing force in world rugby, but their game against France in Rome on Sunday served as a reminder of how they can be blown away when they don’t get it right.

At the last World Cup they were given a similar hiding by France and also conceded 96 points to New Zealand. Of course everyone will try and hype the two games they play against the Boks in a few months from now, but if they come within 15 points of the Boks in either game it will be an achievement.

EASY HOME SCHEDULE WILL ALLOW EXPERIMENTATION

Expecting Italy to push the South Africans in South Africa is fanciful. Which is why Rassie Erasmus will use that phase of the season, which also features a game against Georgia, as a continuation of the depth growth procedure he started last year.

In the unlikely event of Australia beating the British and Irish Lions in mid-year, the visit of the Wallabies for two Championship games could amp the adrenaline a bit.

But it is unlikely, and with Joe Schmidt due to vacate his position as Wallaby coach after the Lions series, the Aussies will also be going through the growing pains associated with a change of coach.

The other game on home soil will be against Argentina, who have troubled the Boks away in recent years but not so much in South Africa. So if Erasmus experiments a bit in those games there won’t be too much inherent risk.

But the two games against New Zealand and the away clashes with Ireland and France will demand a full jacket approach and will provide Erasmus with a perfectly timed litmus test for what by then he hopes will be the core of his best likely combination for the RWC in Australia just under two years later.

NOT INVINCIBLE BUT THEY ARE FORMIDABLE

What the Six Nations has told us is that France are not invincible. England proved that at Twickenham a few weeks ago, thus determining that this won’t be the year where France flex their muscles by winning what for them has become an exceedingly rare Grand Slam.

But in dispatching Italy like they did on Sunday, they did confirm just how formidable they are when they do get it together. Yes, some will say it is only Italy, but Italy are not these days a team you expect to concede 73 points as a matter of course.

The blend of power and flair in the French performance in Rome was sublime and was in keeping with the top French clubs have been doing in Europe.

England supporters might not like to read it as their win over the French was a drought-breaking moment for them, but the French defeat in London was self-inflicted.

France were way too harry casual in their approach to that game and they left so many points on the table that it is not stretching it to suggest that had they taken their chances they would have won by a double digit margin.

Which is what Ireland would have done to them in the Six Nations opener in Dublin were it not for two late consolation England tries (England are now at least reversing their previous trend of conceding late points to lose).

IRELAND SQUEEZE LIKE A PYTHON

Load-shedding forced me to listen to part of Ireland’s latest game against Wales on the radio. One of the commentators made the point that “Ireland are like a python, they just slowly constrict all the life out of you.” That was when Wales were still leading, so those words proved prophetic.

And they were spot on. That is what Ireland does. At least it was a hallmark of their wins over Wales and England. Against Scotland their superiority was obvious from the start.

That last mentioned game was at Murrayfield, where Scotland don’t lose much so it was a statement performance in a different way to the one made against England and directed at those of us who questioned whether there was really still a Big Four in world rugby.

The feeling was that Ireland might be dropping away, but in this Six Nations they have proved otherwise.

They are going to be a massive hurdle for the Boks to overcome at the AVIVA Stadium in November, and France will be even more formidable in the game that comes before that.

It’s going to be a testing time for the Boks and an anxious time for supporters who no longer see the Boks being No 1 as something to be hoped for but as an expectation.

For Erasmus and his players though it will be a test that comes at the perfect time and he will be hoping for it to confirm that the selections he comes up with when he whittles his squad down have put him on the right track. Or it will be a timely wakeup call.

One thing is certain – win all those away games and there will be no disputing the Bok right to see themselves as the global leaders of the sport.