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There is something quite ominous about the form of various leading Springboks in these opening weeks of Super 14.
New Zealand has an entire team of All Blacks crocked or hobbling around while almost everyone who toured Europe last year with South Africa is thundering about, hitting people hard and
full of tricks.
Maybe they are all going to be in pieces by the time Tri Nations comes around. Maybe the South Africans are focusing on the arrival of the Lions at the end of May and peaking towards what is understandably being hyped as a huge series.
The Lions were successful in 1997 and it hurt the Springboks more than they let on. They have an opportunity for revenge and they want to take it.
It is a little more than that, however.
When the Lions came to New Zealand in 2005, there were a host of senior players - Tana Umaga, Justin Marshall, Andrew Mehrtens and
Carlos Spencer - who were desperate to play. They all had release clauses in their contracts which allowed them to escape the instant the Lions had disappeared.
Many of South Africa's senior players will no doubt feel the same - that the Lions offer a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger, Jean de Villiers - they have won a World Cup and felt the joy of a test victory in New Zealand. The Lions are the last great rugby challenge they are yet to conquer.
2009 is not a normal year for the South Africans and that may explain why we are seeing the Sharks and Bulls, in particular, shape up so promisingly in these early weeks. Their focus is on June and July and if they run out of gas after that and fade in the Tri Nations, then so be it.
But this could just be wishful thinking, in light of the alternative being harder to deal with. Maybe what we are seeing is South African rugby move into a golden age.
In the past few years they have given the impression of being a nation trapped by their coaching fraternity's lack of ambition. The athleticism and mobility of some of their players has always been there - only hidden by a requirement to play in a traditional manner of clobber up the guts and kick the leather off it.
Juan Smith, Pierre Spies, Burger, Ryan Kankowski and even Matfield and Botha are capable of shifting about the place just as well as the All Black pack.
De Villiers, Bryan Habana, Conrad Jantjes, JP Pietersen, Jaque Fourie, Frans Steyn, Fourie du Preez and Ruan Pienaar can all play. A couple of them can really play and when Habana fancies it, he can finish from the ends of the world.
Certainly former Blues coach David Nucifora, who is now the Australian Rugby Union's high performance manager, has no doubts whatsoever where the dangers lie in this year's competition.
"It's clear that the talent has been spread across the New Zealand teams and it's thinner than what it's been," he said recently. "They've dealt with depth issues reasonably well in the past, but that will test them this year. And that's already showing through.
"The South African sides are in a pretty strong position and several teams have hardened Super 14 and test players, which will make them really hard to beat."
It's the last point that Blues coach Pat Lam picked up on before playing the Sharks. "If you look through their sides they have a lot of old, experienced heads right through all their teams."
Nothing illustrated that better than when the Bulls lost Matfield to injury and called up Danie Roussow to replace him. And that's the difference between South African rugby and New Zealand rugby at the moment.
Leon MacDonald was ruled out and had to be replaced by Stephen Brett, a promising but unproven first five forced to fill in at fullback. Rudi Wulf and Joe Rokocoko were unavailable for the first two rounds so the Blues had to call in Super 14 rookie Rene Ranger.
The Northlander looked useful, had some zip and pluck but it wasn't so long ago the Blues were trying to shoehorn Rokocoko, Doug Howlett, Rico Gear and Rupeni Caucaunibuca into two places.
In comparison, the Sharks have three Springbok hookers in their midst and can't find a regular start for Beast Mtawarira. Even the lowly Cheetahs have such an abundance of loose forwards that they have persuaded the once-capped openside Kabamba Floors to convert to the wing.
The impact of all this talent and experience is likely to be felt more acutely at test level rather than Super 14. There is no question the Sharks and Bulls are contenders, yet, for all their class, there remains doubt about whether they can hold their form through the campaign.
In 14 years of Super Rugby, South Africa have one victory. That's a major weight of history to bet against and even when the Bulls won in 2007, it was partly as a consequence of the New Zealand sides being hampered by the All Black conditioning programme.
Test football will be a different story, however. It was impossible to take Springbok coach Peter de Villiers seriously last year. It wasn't just his funny voice - he was taking South African rugby away from its core strengths.
It looked utterly daft until the end of year when the Springboks hammered England. On a deathly still winter's afternoon at Twickenham, the Boks suddenly found the joy of expression.
That has obviously stayed with many of their leading players over the summer and New Zealanders can only hope that the British Lions take the wind clean out of South Africa's sails.
Five South Africans to be wary of:
RUAN PIENAAR (Sharks) Ruan Pienaar glides rather than runs and never gets flustered. His cross kick for JP Pietersen's first try in Hamilton last week was done on the hoof, something only the freakishly talented can even attempt.
And he is freakishly talented - what with being able to play halfback or first five. He is so comfortable on the ball, so quick to make decisions and the most deadly runner in broken play.
FRANS STEYN (Sharks) The 21-year-old was just as imaginative as Pienaar last week. Steyn threaded an equally adept grubber for Pietersen 10 minutes after Pienaar, while the second five's timing on to the short ball was deadly.
Steyn has been the focus of much debate in his homeland since returning home from France in 2007 with a World Cup winners' medal. A player with colossal potential, his star has faded since 2007 mainly as a result of no one quite knowing his best position.
He's been bumped from jersey to jersey - first five, second five and fullback mainly - and his confidence has suffered to the extent that there are never-ending stories of him being poised to quit South Africa and head to Europe.
Sharks coach John Plumtree hasn't fixed on Steyn as a second five but says he does envisage playing him there more often than not. The idea of being even semi-settled in the No 12 jersey has worked wonders with Steyn. With his strength, acceleration and booming right boot, he is going to punish a lot of sides.
RYAN KANKOWSKI (Sharks) Ryan Kankowski is another who has recovered from injury with disturbing results. He scored some spectacular solo tries in last year's Super 14 and appears to have added more to his game this year.
He makes the yards with ball in hand but is also fronting more strongly at the collision. Plumtree said this of him recently: "There's no one with his speed in the competition. You get him into space and it's goodnight. He's amazing - a great athlete." Indeed he is and yet he might not even win a regular place in the Springbok side.
BISMARCK DU PLESSIS (Sharks) When John Smit had to return to South Africa after just nine minutes of the first Tri Nations test against the All Blacks in Wellington last year, it should have been a bigger blow than it was.
It probably even strengthened the Boks as it brought the abrasive du Plessis off the bench. An incredibly powerful ball carrier, du Plessis powers through the yards. He ran over the top of Stephen Donald in Hamilton as a reminder of what he can do and his basic skills are all there, too.
Quite how useful he is became apparent on the Springbok end of season tour when they decided to shift Smit to prop to keep du Plessis in the team.
NICK KOSTER (Stormers) The 20-year-old is not known in New Zealand - yet. At 1.89m and 103kg, the Stormers wing is being tipped as the next big thing of South African rugby. He played for the Barbarians against the Wallabies last year on the strength of his Currie Cup campaign and he was drafted into the Stormers starting side for this morning's clash against the Bulls.