South Africa coach Allister Coetzee seems set to continue with his predominantly local line up in the lead-up to the 2019 World Cup in Japan, given the Springboks' unbeaten run this year.
The South Africans are a far cry from the lost bunch that suffered eight defeats in the 12 Test matches they played in 2016, which was Coetzee's first year in charge of the national team.
The Boks have won four matches in a row this year, starting with a 3-0 series win over France in June, before seeing off Argentina 37-15 in their Rugby Championship opener in Port Elizabeth last weekend.
Last year Coetzee called up quite a few players based in Europe and Japan. Five of those players were in the Boks' 23-man squad when they lost to Italy in Florence last November, while there were four in the team that lost to Argentina in Salta in the Rugby Championship almost exactly a year ago. But, in the starting line-up for this Saturday's return leg against Argentina at that same venue, only England-based scrumhalf Francois Hougaard plays his rugby outside South Africa's borders.
SA Rugby announced last year that only overseas-based players with a minimum of 30 Test caps will be eligible to play for the Springboks. But Coetzee has decided to stick with the majority of the fresh faces who ran out against the French, while also rewarding form and picking combinations in key decision-making positions.
The spine of the Bok team is made of the Lions players who made it all the way to the 2017 Super Rugby final. Hooker Malcolm Marx, lock Franco Mostert, injured captain and No 8 Warren Whiteley, halfbacks Ross Cronje and Elton Jantjies, and two of the back three -- Courtnall Skosan and Andries Coetzee -- have brought a sense of continuity and cohesion to the Bok team.
Coetzee will monitor the form of experienced overseas-based stars, such as Duane Vermeulen and Frans Steyn, who have the quality to add a lot of value to the Bok effort. But for now, the Bok coach is going local.
"This is a new team. Remember Bryan Habana played here, Morné Steyn was here and Adriaan Strauss was the captain. They are experienced players, but maybe we didn't have that continuity, because they are overseas-based players," Coetzee told a media briefing in Salta on Thursday, ahead of their game at the Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena
"With our locally-based players we have that synergy and understanding, that togetherness, which is different. The continuity this year has also given us a great platform to build from and to try and keep momentum after the French Tests.
"The combinations we have had, with four or five players from the Lions in Warren Whiteley at No 8, Ross Cronje and Elton Jantjies as the halfbacks, Skosan and Coetzee at the back, that is the kind of thing that helps the decision making, which is important to get right at international level," he added.
But while the Boks are unbeaten this year, they have struggled against Argentina away from home, only winning three close matches over the past five years. They lost in Salta in 2016, and drew with Los Pumas in 2012.
The home team's players normally lift their game in front of their supporters. They peppered the Boks with many high kicks on the narrow Salta pitch in 2016, and dominated the collisions.
So, Coetzee is definitely not taking anything for granted in 2017, especially with a young and inexperienced line-up.
"This is a new challenge for these group of players. A lot of them didn't play in Salta last year. I think we will get better after facing tough challenges like this," Coetzee said.
"It's important to know that Argentina are a very good side, and we have to be even better this weekend, because they will want to make amends for last week.
"We are not thinking about the All Blacks and Australia at this time. We have got huge respect for Argentina. They have got world-class players, especially if you look at the number of experienced players in their side," he concluded.