Most pundits thought that once South Africa got home they'd be odds-on to win the Tri Nations. They got sufficient points on the road and are difficult to beat in their own backyard. I don't think too many people would have predicted they would lose comprehensively to us in Cape Town and go down easily to Australia in Durban.

With their season turning to rubbish they then destroyed Australia with a half-century hiding in Johannesburg.

I believe the over-riding reason for these turnarounds is mental toughness. Mental strength plays a significant role in elite sport. In team sports you will see sides who appear to evenly matched on paper, but one of them scores a blow-out win because the losing side isn't right up for it mentally. That's what we've witnessed in this Tri Nations.

I'll come back to this point in a moment, but indulge me in a diversion on the Experimental Law Variations.

During the week, All Blacks centre Conrad Smith said the ELVs made it easier for a team to score a blowout win if they could get early dominance and build momentum.

I'm not totally sure I agree with that in its entirety, but one thing the ELVs do allow is for a team to get on the front foot, and stay there for a periods of time. The main reason for this is the rule which has the defending team back 5m at scrum time. That makes it easier for the attacking side to get to the advantage line and we know that getting over the advantage line is critical. So from a scrum it is easier to create that initial momentum and thus build pressure.

Another area the ELVs have effected the game is in the lack of quality counter-attacking, which is not as good as it used to be.

That's symptomatic of ELVs at breakdown. Players now fear being isolated and therefore giving up a free kick in their own half. The side that gets the free kick can take a scrum and build attacking momentum. A side can also gain that advantage with an astute kick-and-chase, isolating the ball carrier, which is why we've seen more kicking under these ELVs.

Let's get back to mental toughness. For those first two games in New Zealand, the Springboks were in reasonable shape mentally, but they started to struggle once they got to the third week on the road in Perth against an Aussie side that was up for it in their Tri-Nations opener.

For some reason we weren't quite right for the game in Sydney and I've never really put my finger on it until a former colleague, who shall remain nameless, came up with an interesting theory. His observation was that even though the coaching staff on both sides were playing down the fact, the game was the first "head-to-head" between Graham Henry and Robbie Deans, and it would have been impossible for either coach not to feel the pressure, given how much context was involved in the clash.