The Springboks sent out a warning to the rest of the rugby world on Monday when they displayed their silverware with the Nelson Mandela Plate, Freedom Cup and Tri-Nations trophy but it was the words of skipper John Smit that will send a chill down the spines of their opponents around the world.
With the Webb Ellis trophy safely tucked away at the South African Rugby Union offices in Cape Town along with the Unity Cup for claiming the prized scalp of the British and Irish Lions, Smit warned the world that the best of the Springboks was yet to come.
Smit said the Boks wanted to defend the World Cup in New Zealand in 2011.
"This is the type of team that is going to keep on learning and they will do whatever is necessary to keep on winning Tests. I believe we are going to get there," said Smit on their arrival at OR Tambo International Airport where they were welcomed by South African President Jacob Zuma.
Smit said that plenty of work still lay ahead for his team.
"I think it is early days and it is always easy to talk about things like that when you have achieve like this but it is a long way to go before the World Cup in 2011.
It will our goal of ours to retain the trophy but there will be a lot of hard work to do before we get there," Smit said.
Springbok vice-captain Victor Matfield, who has led the Bulls to victories in the Currie Cup, two Super 14 wins and has been an integral member of the Springbok squad that won the Tri-Nations in 2004 and the World Cup in 2007, said winning the Tri-Nations was hugely satisfying.
"It was three hard weeks overseas. The middle part of the tour wasn't good but we were happy to end off on a winning note. When we won the Tri-Nations in 2004 it was different. We won two games, but so did Australia and New Zealand. This time we won five out of six games and to beat the All Blacks three times in a row in the same year is amazing," said Matfield.
"It is difficult to say that we are the best Springbok team ever.
"We are very happy with what we have achieved in the past two years and we hope it is not the end and there are two more years ahead of us,"said Matfield.
"Two years is still far away but to go to New Zealand and beat them there is nice.
"I hope we can build on that and get more wins there, so that by the next World Cup we are really confident," said Matfield.
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers was moved by the presence of Zuma but also stressed that his team still faced a tougher challenge with the end-of-year tour before their minds could even start thinking about winning back-to-back World Cups.
"It is great to have the president and all the people here. It's brilliant. It is huge. We'll take a week or two off and start planning for our end-of-year tour.
"It doesn't mean that we will win everything.
"We just have to bite the bullet and keep on looking at new horizons," said De Villiers yesterday.