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Cape Town - That the current, smooth-firing Springboks have brought eye-catching width to their game, among other mushrooming strengths, can hardly be disputed.
Statistics, in bright lights, confirm as much: since Rassie Erasmus assumed the reins as head coach for the 2018 Test season onward, the Boks have notched 56 tries in his 19 internationals at the tiller ... almost bang on three a game, entering the massive assignment immediately ahead of RWC 2019.
Just as significantly, however, more than half of those dot-downs have come from wings: 29 (or 51 percent of them).
While the two widest berths are traditionally renowned as prolific-scoring ones, that is still a formidable stat when you consider the array of other specialist positions in a rugby line-up.
Bok wing fliers were very much to the fore again in the last Test before the World Cup on Friday, when Makazole Mapimpi notched a maiden hat-trick at that level and Cheslin Kolbe chipped in two of his own.
The only one of six in the 41-7 Saitama thumping of Japan not registered from that slot was reserve scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies’ effort right at the death.
Throughout Erasmus’s tenure so far, wings haven’t exactly “caught colds” through inactivity in an attacking capacity.
All of the main four deployed by the mastermind since he took charge - Mapimpi, Kolbe, S'bu Nkosi and Aphiwe Dyantyi, though the last-named figure currently involved in a doping-allegations controversy - have been prolific in their strike rates.
Mapimpi’s field day against the Japanese took him to eight tries from as many Test appearances (all as a starter), so you don’t have to Einstein to work out his strike rate.
But Nkosi - so brilliant against Argentina at Loftus recently, yet currently unable to crack a Bok first-team gig - is also right up there with his seven from eight appearances (87 percent strike rate).
Meanwhile Kolbe has five tries from 10 Tests - four of them in the more restrictive status of a substitute - for a 50 percent strike rate, and Dyantyi six from 13 matches (46 percent).
It is all healthy stuff, even if these remain relatively fledgling days at Test level in all cases, and there may be times as their careers develop where they go - for reasons not always directly linked to own play - a bit more becalmed in the try column.
As with many other sports, individual statistics in early stages of development on the highest stage can be a little deceptive.
Yet someone like Mapimpi, the Sharks-based gas man, has already shown himself to be an ace, almost football striker-like predator and is well on course to match great compatriot Bryan Habana’s infant-career achievement of 10 tries for South Africa in his first 10 Test matches.
The much-decorated Habana ended with a sterling 67 tries (the ongoing national individual record) from 124 appearances over a 13-year Bok career, for a strike rate of 54 percent.
Next best strike figure for a post-isolation Springbok wing with a significant-length career goes to the just-deceased Chester Williams (14 from 27 Tests ... so 51 percent).
Pieter Rossouw scored 21 tries in 43 Tests for a strike-rate of 48 percent.
The late James Small registered 20 tries in 47 Tests (though a couple were at fullback) for a 42 percent figure, and Breyton Paulse dotted 26 times in a 64-Test career (40 percent).
Habana’s long-time colleague on the Bok right while he was predominantly the left wing, JP Pietersen, was credited with 24 tries in 70 Tests (34 percent).
*New Zealand, global dominators for such a lengthy period, have sported some particularly rosy strike rates from wings in modern times, including the now France-based Julian Savea’s 46 from 54 Tests (85 percent) and incumbent left wing Rieko Ioane’s 23 from 26 games (88 percent).
*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing
