Courtney Lawes in awe of Springbok cohesion

The four-time world champions clocked up an average of over 43 points per match in their three wins over England, Scotland and Wales, respectively, conceding just 49 in total across the games, with their biggest victory coming against Wales, who failed to register a single point against the World Cup holders.

Such is South Africa's strength in depth that they rotated 43 players over during their three wins, proving that head coach Rassie Erasmus can rely on each and every player within the Springboks fold.

"They're actually operating almost like a religion now," Lawes told The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast. "Any player that comes under the fold is just completely locked in from the word go."

The Springboks have clearly become rugby's most cohesive team - one that defeats its opposition as a unit, overwhelming them. But to perform together as well as they do on the field, there needs to be a level of camaraderie and respect off the field.

We've seen teams fall apart due to off-the-field issues, whether that be coaching disagreements, player rivalries or otherwise, but no such noise ever seems to come from within the Springbok camp.

Lawes continued: "Tins [Mike Tindall] talked about players that are not involved in the game at the weekend and are maybe a bit disgruntled and give some bad feedback to X, Y, Z, or whoever. Like, could you ever imagine that coming out of the Springbok camp? Absolutely not."

Praising the environment that Rassie has created, Lawes called it "seamless", but insists that such cohesion isn't built overnight.

"He's been in charge for a good while now, and that is the perk of having a coach of that calibre being in charge of an operation for that long," he explained.

"Players coming in and just being completely engrossed in it from day one, and just seem to know what they're doing from minute go, and it's just that clear, that organised and that structured.

"Credit to South Africa; they're going to be a very, very difficult team to beat for the coming years."

South Africa will be back in action in August, when they take on the scorned Argentina, who recently lost by fine margins to England. Following that, the Springboks will then face the All Blacks four times in quick succession in the Greatest Rivalry Tour, before heading to Perth to face the Wallabies at the end of September.

Their Nations Championship journey will continue in November when they take on Italy, France and Ireland, which should set up a tantalising conclusion to the competition.