Peter de Villiers is concerned by the growing workload of South African players and will hold talks with his bosses to try plotting the way forward in the face of a tough 2010 season ahead of the 2011 World Cup.
The Springboks suffered another disappointing loss during their year-end tour to Europe on Saturday when they went down 15-10 to Ireland at Croke Park - a fourth defeat in five games, with the others coming against France, Leicester and Saracens.
It ended a busy six months for the world champions, which saw them beat the British and Irish Lions, win the Tri-Nations and then end their northern hemisphere trip with a solitary victory over Italy.
Some of De Villiers' players began arriving back in the country today, with a host of them remaining in London where they will turn out for the Barbarians against the All Blacks next weekend.
The coach said: 'A number of players have played over 2000 minutes of rugby this year encompassing the Vodacom Super 14, Castle South Africa 2009 Lions Series, Vodacom Tri-Nations and Absa Currie Cup.
'We need a unified approach to address this and a host of other matters relevant to the welfare of our top players.'
De Villiers revealed plans were now in place for talks with the South African Rugby Union (SARU) as well as the medical and conditioning staff at the provincial unions to discuss how the country could get the best out of players in the build-up to the next World Cup.
He continued: 'It's imperative that we monitor the players training and playing load with their longer term well being in mind. This (2009) has been a very long season and it is evident that many players are mentally and physically fatigued.
'The biggest concern, however, is the cumulative effect of the amount of rugby that Springbok players have played over the past three years, as we know that this puts them at risk to injury in the following year.
'In order to get best out of our players for 2011 we will have to manage their training and playing times during 2010.'
Reflecting on the tour, which highlighted many problem areas in the team, De Villiers said: 'It is never nice to lose but we have learnt a lot from this tour.
'Regardless of the disappointing end to the year you cannot take away the successes that made this team the best in the world in 2009.
'We have been able to identify our key focus areas for next year and we have been able to identify some of the players who will take the Springboks forward after 2011.'
Captain John Smit, whose side were named the International Rugby Board (IRB) Team of the Year on Saturday, added: 'Although we did not achieve all of our goals on this tour, this team can hold its heads high for what has been achieved over the past year.
'It is a privilege to be part of such a special group of players and I have no doubt that they will put the disappointment behind them and be back stronger and more determined in 2010.'
