Springbok captain John Smit may be sitting on 99 caps but pressure is mounting in South Africa for a change in direction for the national side after its poor start to the Tri Nations.
South African writer Rob Houwing said that despite being one Test away from 100 caps, Smit was probably under the harshest scrutiny of his international career.
Leader of a side which has been well-beaten, twice by the All Blacks and once by Australia, to cut it out of a Tri Nations defence, Smit was high on a list of players whose shelf lives were 'looking incredibly tenuous'.
While it was unlikely Smit would be dropped before South Africa meets the All Blacks in Soweto on August 21, Houwing said there would be plenty of calls for selectors to disregard the fact he was on 99 caps.
The causes of Gary Botha, Chiliboy Ralepelle, Tiaan Liebenberg and, when recovered from surgery Bismarck du Plessis, would affect Smit's chances of continuing his leadership until the Rugby World Cup but for the moment it appeared Smit still had the support of his players.
As Houwing said: "If this Bok team is a corpse in some alarming respects, it retains a pulse."
And there was the danger of what might happen to the solid South African scrum if Smit was taken out of the picture.
"Smit, in fairness, has not been the only senior statesman in the Springbok side to look unacceptably off the pace, despite doing certain grapple 'n grunt tasks to fair enough standards," he said.
"Still, the All Blacks and Wallabies combos of the past three weeks have taken open-play tempo and ball-in-hand wizardry to exciting new levels and the Boks, as much as it may hurt to hear it, have just not been able to keep up."