Springbok assistant coach Gary Gold believes that the decision to rest several of the players on the Tri-Nations away leg was the right one.

Gold explained that the Bok management had been advice by people like top sports scientist Professor Tim Noakes from the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town.

Noakes has often warned the Springboks that key players need to be rested for the team to have any hope of defending the World Cup in New Zealand and has spoken out against the amount of rugby being played on numerous occasions.

"Now that we have given these players a rest, the team is suddenly unprepared for the World Cup. The tour was a disappointment, but we have a lot of experience to fall back on," Gold told Beeld.

Gold was also quick to rubbish the idea that the team was too old to win the World Cup, and believed that far too much emphasis was being directed at the age of the star players.

"The team is on average two and a half years younger than England's team was when it won the 2003 World Cup," he said.

However, Bok backline coach Dick Muir had a far more negative approach when he reflected on the tour and "embarrassment" of the Tri-Nations defeats to the Wallabies and All Blacks.

"We expected more from the team. It was a risk to throw so many young and inexperience players in at the deep end," Muir told Beeld.

Muir admitted that the team had made a number of bad decisions on the field and emphasiesed the importance of winning at home before the World Cup.

"Expect big things from the team. It will be important to win the [Tri-Nations] games in South Africa," Muir added.