SOUTH AFRICA REACTION:SOUTH AFRICA will not be resting on their laurels despite their success against the best from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres this year.

The 2007 World Cup winners have enjoyed a stellar few months after following up a 2-1 series victory against the British and Irish Lions with success in the Tri-Nations, which included a clean sweep of New Zealand.

But coach Peter de Villiers, who was humble in victory on Saturday after their 32-29 win against the All Blacks in Hamilton, believes his team can improve on their success this year as they build towards defending their crown in New Zealand in 2011.

“This team hasn’t seen the best of themselves yet. We don’t have control over winning and losing but we will definitely have control over the way we prepare.

“We hope we can keep this momentum.”

As several New Zealand coaches have found – Graham Henry being the latest – success between World Cups does not translate into success at rugby’s showpiece event.

De Villiers remains positive however, that hard work will be rewarded.

“What we’ve got right is the blend. We don’t stick to one thing only. Our decision-making during the Tri-Nations was sometimes very, very good, sometimes good and last week not that good.

“It shows us that when we are on the back foot we can still dominate some areas of the game.

“We have a lot of work to do. We won’t just sit back and think that everything will happen for us. We know that New Zealand in New Zealand at the World Cup is going to be very tough.

“This team can go places if we remain humble, keep our feet on the ground and work hard at what we want to achieve.”

Two of the key figures in this year’s success have been captain John Smit and uncompromising lock Victor Matfield, both of whom are no certainties to be around in two years’ time.

Both, however, believe the current crop of players, particularly those such as Heinrich Brussow, Bismarck du Plessis, Fourie du Preez, Juan Smith, Pierre Spies and Francois and Morne Steyn, will be in their prime in 2011 and are more than capable of success in New Zealand.

“We’ve got a coaching staff that understands in which direction this group of players needs to move,” said 31-year-old Smit.

“If I was Peter I’d be reasonably pleased with where we are sitting and make sure I could keep the boat sailing in the right direction and in the same direction.”

Matfield (32) certainly expects to see improvement in the next 24 months.

“The team can definitely develop every year. There are a lot of youngsters and the more exposed they get the more experienced they will become. I definitely think they can get better.

“As for myself, I still have to see. Hopefully, I can make that squad but there are great youngsters coming through. A guy like Andries Bekker is awesome. I’ll still be fighting at that stage to be there but the team will definitely be better than we are at the moment.”

Back-to-back wins on New Zealand soil in the past two years will also have given the team confidence given their poor run prior to last year’s win in Dunedin.

Smit admitted: “The pickings have been lean over the last decade or so. I think back-to-back victories especially here in NZ is a pretty big issue for us and we’ll gain a lot of confidence out of that.

“It’s important to be able to maintain that type of performance away from home and be able to replicate that year on year.

“We’ve managed to pick up two out of three in this Tri-Nations (they also beat Australia in Perth) and next year we’ll be tested again against two top teams. It helps a hell of a lot to have taken two out of the three this year.”