Both the Springboks and SA 'A' opened their seasons with convincing victories at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday, but Rassie Erasmus and Mzwandile Stick were quick to temper any satisfaction with a list of areas requiring urgent attention ahead of the Nations Championship in a fortnight.

The Springboks ran in 80 points against the Barbarians, winning 80-31, while SA 'A' shut out Zimbabwe 40-0 on the same ground. Despite the margins, neither coach was fully satisfied.

Erasmus pointed to discipline and defensive cohesion as the primary concerns from the Bok performance. "Our discipline wasn't great, and they scored tries in quick succession, so yellow cards were not ideal," he said, adding that the Barbarians' limited preparation — assembled late with only three training sessions — made them an unreliable gauge. "They scored four or five great tries, so we need to eliminate those defensive lapses and be better as a unit when we play against England."

He also acknowledged the context of a squad reconvening after six or seven months, with Stormers and Bulls players only recently becoming available. The more pressing concern was Franco Mostert, who left the field with an ankle injury. "I'm worried about his ankle. He'll go for scans tomorrow, so hopefully it's not too bad," Erasmus said.

Kolisi was measured in his assessment. "I thought a lot of what we wanted to get through, we did, but also, when things didn't work, and we went against the plan, we learned lessons there. There were opportunities where I thought we could have controlled things better."

Stick described the SA 'A' display against Zimbabwe as a mixed but ultimately encouraging exercise in building cohesion from scratch. "The majority of our players have never played together, so it was a new team," he noted. He was frustrated by two disallowed first-half tries — one for a player going into touch, another for a player marginally offside from a kick — but took confidence from the side's composure under pressure and the clean sheet.

Vincent Tshituka, who captained SA 'A', acknowledged that Zimbabwe — who will feature at the 2027 Rugby World Cup — arrived with genuine intent. "We played against a desperate side. We knew the Zimbabwe players would be motivated and would want to prove a point against world-class opposition, and it showed."