South African national rugby union team - Overall

Until the 1990s South Africa were considered one of the most successful rugby nations in Test match history, with a positive win-loss ratio against every Test playing nation including their traditional rivals, New Zealand. Despite having to contend with off field problems that the other major Test nations do not face, the Springboks still maintain their positive win-loss ratio against every team, other than New Zealand. The All Blacks eventually managed to overtake South Africa because of a run of Springbok losses caused by the lack of a reliable goal kicker, allied to much more fundamental weakenesses of their historical tight forward strength being overtaken by the All Blacks, the All Blacks scoring multiple tries against them in every match (home and away) by virtue of more creative and skilled backs and loose forwards, and the inability to win a single match in New Zealand between 1998 and 2008, and only one match from 1981 to 2008. South Africa are currently ranked number two in the world rankings. When the ranking system was introduced in October 2003 South Africa were ranked sixth. Their ranking fluctuated in the following four years, until victory in the 2007 Rugby World Cup sent them to the top of the rankings. Since then, the top two rankings have been interchanged between South Africa and New Zealand, with the Springboks most recently regaining top spot in July 2009 with a win over the All Blacks in the Tri-Nations and losing it in November 2009 with a loss to France on their end-of-year tour.

World Cup Records

South Africa did not participate in the 1987 and 1991 World Cups because of the sporting boycott that apartheid brought against them. South Africa's introduction to the event was as hosts. They defeated defending champions Australia 27–18 in the opening match, and went on to defeat the All Blacks 15–12 after extra time in the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final, with a drop goal from 40 metres by Joel Stransky.

In 1999 South Africa suffered their first ever World Cup loss when they were defeated 21–27 by Australia in their semi-final; they went on to defeat the All Blacks 22–18 in the third-fourth play-off match.^[102] The worst ever South African performance at a World Cup was in 2003 when they lost a pool game to England, and then were knocked out of the tournament by the All Blacks in their quarter-final.^[103] In 2007 the Springboks defeated Fiji in the quarter-finals and Argentina in the semi-finals. They then defeated England in the final 15–6 to win the tournament for a second time.

South African national rugby union team - Home grounds

The Springboks do not use a national stadium as their home, but play out of a number of venues throughout South Africa. The 60,000 seat Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg (known commercially as Coca-Cola Park) was the main venue for the 1995 World Cup, where the Springboks defeated the All Blacks in the final. Other regular venues for tests include Pretoria's Loftus Versfeld Stadium, the Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, the ABSA Stadium in Durban, Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein, and the EPRFU Stadium in Port Elizabeth.

The first ever South African international took place at Port Elizabeth's St George’s Park Cricket Ground in 1891. Ellis Park was built in 1928, and in 1955 hosted a record 100,000 people in a Test between South Africa and the British and Irish Lions.

The Springboks are said to have a notable advantage over touring sides when playing at high altitude on the Highveld. Games at Ellis Park, Loftus Versfeld, or Vodacom Park are said to present physical problems, and to influence a match in a number of other ways, such as the ball travelling further when kicked. Experts disagree on whether touring team's traditionally poor performances at altitude are more due to a state of mind rather than an actual physical challenge.

South African national rugby union team Apartheid and transformation

Even before the apartheid laws were introduced to South Africa in 1948 the Springboks had been an all white team. The team became a symbol of racial division within South Africa, and following the first open elections in 1994, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) instituted a policy of transformation in South African sport. In this context transformation can be defined as "a complete alternation of the appearance or character of South African rugby", and one aim is to transform the Springboks into a team more representative of South Africa's race and class.

South Africa's World Cup winning side of 1995 fielded only one non-white player (Chester Williams). This continued in the team's biggest matches of the 1999 and 2003 World Cups, and in the 2007 World Cup final the team fielded two non-white players (Bryan Habana and JP Pietersen). Despite a quota system existing to encourage Super 14 and provincial teams to field non-white players transformation has been slow in the opinion of many. South African Rugby Union president Oregan Hoskins considered the number of non-white players in the 2007 World Cup squad too low, and in 2008 the first non-white coach of the side was appointed. The political pressure on rugby coaches and administrators to select non-white players is strong; 16 of the 35 new Springboks appointed by former coach Jake White were non-white. ANC Minister of Parliament Butana Komphela expressed a view held by many politicians in the country when he said "Sport cannot be excluded from imperatives of empowerment and transformation."

South African national rugby union team 2010 and beyond

On 6 November 2010, the Springboks will have the honour of being the first Test team to play Ireland at their new home of Aviva Stadium. Because of the historic significance of this match, the Boks have already agreed to wear their change strip to allow Ireland to wear their regular green. (Normally, the home team changes in case of a colour clash.)The match will be the opener of their first attempted Grand Slam tour since 2004, with the Ireland match followed by encounters with Wales, Scotland and England. The Boks will follow up the tour with a match against the Barbarians.

The Boks began their 2010 Test campaign on 5 June, defeating Wales 34-31 at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Controversy arose prior to the game as Bath-based Butch James was withdrawn from the team at the last minute due to the refusal of Premier Rugby, which runs England's Guinness Premiership, to grant James permission on the grounds that the match fell outside the IRB-recognised June Test window. The victory over Wales was achieved without some of the regular Springbok stalwarts such as Fourie du Preez, Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger, Pierre Spies, Bryan Habana and JP Pietersen.

Afer defeating Wales, the Springboks headed back to Cape Town to play against France on the 12 June for their second international in 2010, which they won 42-17. The Springbok victory over the French was their first since 2005. Victor Matfield believes the victory will give the Springboks a psychological advantage over the French as they may meet in the knock out stages of the Rugby World Cup 2011. The crushing victory over the French was achieved through five tries with Pier Spies , Guthro Steenkamp , and Francois Louw each scoring one try and Gio Aplon, the 75kg wing, scoring two tries. Their final preparations for the 2010 Trinations tournament includes two internationals against Italy.

South African national rugby union team 2009: A full trophy cabinet and a disappointing tour

The 2009 season began as one of the more successful in the post-apartheid history of South African rugby. The Boks' 2009 international campaign began with a closely-fought 2–1 series win over the Lions. They followed it up with a convincing win in the Tri Nations, sweeping the All Blacks and losing only to the Wallabies in Brisbane. In the process, they added the Freedom Cup (against New Zealand) and the Mandela Challenge Plate (against Australia) to their trophy cabinet. Their Tri Nations results put them in first place in the IRB World Rankings.

However, the Boks' busy year finally took its toll when they toured Europe in the November Test window. They lost their top spot in the IRB rankings with a loss to France, while a midweek side lost two non-Tests to Leicester Tigers and Saracens. The first-string Boks returned to defeat Italy, but were beaten by Ireland to close out the year.

Nonetheless, the Boks were named IRB International Team of the Year, beating out Six Nations Grand Slam winners Ireland.

South African national rugby union team After the World Cup

2008 was a mixed year for the Springboks. Going into the year as world champions, they were under pressure to perform. In January 2008, history was made when Peter de Villiers was appointed as the first ever non-white coach of the Springboks. De Villiers's first squad included ten of colour and managed two victories against Wales (43-17 and 37-21) and one against Italy (26-0) in Incoming Tours. They had an ultimately disappointing Tri Nations ending up last with only two wins. They did manage a historic triumph in Dunedin, a city in which they had never tasted victory in over 100 years. The Springboks did enough to beat Wales and Scotland before thrashing England on the end of year tour . This was good preparation for the upcoming British and Irish Lions Tour.