This time of year we usually get the ‘awards’ columns from rugby journalists or experts, I am neither so I won’t bore you with another one.

Taking time out and not doing this straight after our last test against Ireland gave me time to reflect on the season more holistically, and in many ways I disagree with the general sentiment out there that this was a special season for the Boks in the sense that people refer, or reflect on 2009.

For me personally, I am left disappointed.

At the end of 2008 I was excited by the promise the team showed.  They had a willingness to adapt and change or for a better word, evolve with the game.

2009 however showed me nothing to get me excited.

Yes winning is nice and no-one could be more proud of what the boys achieved on the pitch this year.

It is not every year that we can sit back and look at our trophy cabinet and see a Super 14 trophy, a Lions series trophy, the Tri-Nations trophy, The Mandela Shield (or is it s plate?), the Freedom Cup, the Sevens World Series Trophy, and of course old Bill.

But many guys will tell you it is one thing to get to the top, it is quite another thing to stay there.

So yes, congratulations to Peter and the boys on their success in 2009, but these days the top prize is sustained success.

As an example, the World Cup gives any nation who holds it a bit of bragging rights, but anyone who knows anything about the game would be stupid not to admit that for the last 20 odd years or so, apart from a hiccup every now and then, the All Blacks have been the best in the world.

It is great to have the wood over them in 2009, where we beat them 3 times!  But that hardly makes up for the last 15 years or so where we have been the bridesmaids.

So when it comes to sustained success against the top teams in the world we have to ask ourselves – do we believe we will do the same against the All Blacks and Australia (our main rivals) in 2010?  I know we all hope and believe it is possible, but hope and belief achieved very little throughout the history of the game.  Unfortunately, I personally believe we will not have a similar year of success in 2010, because I have seen very little ‘development’ or some sort of evolution in our game to show me we are not one-trick ponies but a team that grows with the times and ensures sustained domination in the game.

We have plan A, and if that fails, we pretty much have nothing else.

Now Plan A worked pretty well in the first Lions test but got worked out after that.

Plan A worked pretty well in the Tri-Nations for us but also got worked out on the End-of-Year tour especially when we came up against a guy (Gert Smal) that helped devise the plan in the first place.

Have we grown at all since 2007?  In 2008 I believed we did, but 2009 showed me that when the chips are down, we are pretty much still those one-trick ponies.

One of our saving graces however is that what we do, we do pretty damn well and in fact, I think we are the best in the world at it.  But unfortunately, as 2004 proved where we were the best at the rush defense, we will get worked out.

Peter talked about taking this team to the next level, that we can add another 20 to 30% to these guys and take them to a level to achieve sustained success never before seen in Springbok rugby in the professional era.  Not only did I believe him, I also felt he was right and that it could be achieved.

It is not changing or dropping players or not playing towards our strengths, it simply evolving as a team and as players and the class of 2009, showed none of that.

I believe it is best explained in a quote I heard on television on Discovery channel about evolution in general, and that the species (read team) most likely to survive and not go extinct or become someone’s lunch are not those who effect change, but those who adapt to changes (read evolve) best.

In life or in that context you cannot afford to be a one-trick pony, if you are, you will be the ones being dug up and studied in future, rather than those doing the digging or those who survived.

It means that you have to evolve to add multiple dimensions and skills to meet whatever challenge head-on and survive, and not only rely on the tried and tested because as in nature where your enemies (viruses and bacteria) evolve and work out your natural and current defenses, so do professional rugby teams you come up against.

The Springboks have not.

In fact, where we won 69% of our tests in 2008 we only managed to win 66% in 2009.  So yes the trophy cabinet might look very pretty, but in terms of our results, we have not evolved, or grown, we have in fact statistically speaking, regressed.

2010 will be a shocker of a year for many teams.  Included in that of course I believe will be our Boks who will hit a low next year for many reasons, but also, I think the All Blacks will also suffer a shocker because their situation is very similar to that of the Boks.

I said many times this year that I cannot see the Blacks evolving or changing or becoming better under Henry, and I stand by that still.  Take Carter out of that team and they are average.

Teams that will do well in 2010 includes Australia, France and Ireland (so make your picks today if you want to make a couple of bucks).

Australia and Robbie Deans are being criticised in a very similar way Peter was criticised in 2008, but what I believe they do not see is how Deans is busy evolving the game of rugby in Australia with a new breed of player and a fresher, newer way of thinking and playing.

Two years out, those three teams are also my picks for success in 2011 in New Zealand.

Of course the Boks and the Blacks will be there and amongst the top 5 for the next couple of years, because as long as we have the physical edge to the game we have in those two teams, they will be tough to beat.

Within saying that, it also means they only present a singular threat to opposition, where the aim really is to present multiple threats to opposition teams so you cannot be easily worked out and countered.

There is still time for possible success in 2011, but do not expect anything special in 2010.