South Africa head coach Heyneke Meyer has talked up the qualities of the young players coming through for his side, insisting that they can be an "invincible" team in the future.
The Springboks bid farewell to stalwarts Victor Matfield and Schalk Burger during the bronze-medal match on Friday night, while Jean de Villiers retired during the tournament and Fourie du Preez is also expected to call time on his international career.
However, Meyer believes that the new crop, containing the likes of Jesse Kriel, Handre Pollard, Eben Etzebeth and Lood de Jager, will be a "special" group of players by the time the next World Cup rolls along.
"I'm very, very excited about the youngsters. If you look at the guys that came through, Victor mentored them. I don't want to sound arrogant but I think one of the most exciting youngsters around at the moment is in the South African team," Meyer told Sports Mole.
"If we can keep this team together, train hard and get our systems in place, we've been so close, I can see this team being invincible going forward. These youngsters will also go on and learn from this experience. I think that it will really mentally toughen them up, especially if you look at Jesse Kriel coming in at 21 years, Pollard is still 21 - people don't believe that - and the locks.
"In another four years, even in another year they will be a different team and I really hope that we can keep them together and work hard because these are special players coming through. I think a lot of these guys will be superstars for the world and for their country going forward."
South Africa secured third place at the 2015 Rugby World Cup with a 24-13 victory over Argentina at the Olympic Stadium on Friday.
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