The Springboks aren’t improving under coach Rassie Erasmus.
And the proof is in the results.
This time last year, then-coach Allister Coetzee and his team walked off the field in Australia with a 23-23 draw.
Back then, the Springboks had a chance to bag the win after 80 minutes.
Elton Jantjies, who played as flyhalf in both encounters, then missed a horror attempt at a drop-goal, before they regained possession.
The Boks then again knocked on the ball on attack and saw the chance to beat the Aussies slip away.
Now this past weekend, both teams again scored two tries.
The Aussies ended with 23 points, but the difference between Erasmus’ Boks and that of Coetzee, is that this year’s team could only total 18 points - a deficit of five, the losing margin.
Now the Springboks would have done their homework.
And that’s probably the reason why Faf de Klerk was continuously warned and penalised by referee Glen Jackson for being offside and trying to put pressure on Australia’s Will Genia.
It worked under Coetzee, when, in 2017, Ross Cronje picked up a loose ball at an Aussie ruck before passing to Jesse Kriel, who toed the ball downfield before collecting it for their first five-pointer.
It worked then, but didn’t work on Saturday.
The Boks again scored a rolling maul try - like they did in 2017.
But while the match had a lot of similarities to the 2017 encounter, the result means South Africa have in fact not gone forward.
When Erasmus was brought in, he was supposed to build on the work that was already done by Toetie.
If he did this successfully, the Springboks would not have looked so one-dimensional and would have won Saturday’s match.
Instead, the players’ skill levels looked poor as they made a number of handling errors throughout the match.
Now it took Coetzee 17 matches to win his first away game in charge of South Africa.
Erasmus has now been in charge of only seven games, but still hasn’t recorded an away win.
If the South African Rugby Union’s DIY man had the plan to save the Boks, fans would have seen some evidence of that by now.
South Africa face New Zealand away from home this coming week.
Last year they got hammered 57-0 in this fixture.
And if Erasmus’ Boks go down the same route this time around, the knives will truly be out.
But we’ve already sacked one coach leading up to the World Cup and I doubt whether there will be another casualty before the Boks head to Japan.
Right now, I can’t see the Boks lifting the William Webb Ellis trophy - evidence suggests we are further from that than we were this time last year.