Rassie Erasmus has called for marked improvement from the Springboks despite their commanding 66-7 victory over Italy at Allianz Stadium in Turin on Saturday.
The world champions dominated the opening 40 minutes, running in six tries for a 45-0 half-time lead before adding three more in a less polished second half. Italy managed a consolation score as the Boks' intensity dropped, but Erasmus refused to be overly critical of a side that had assembled for their first training session only on Monday following their defeat to Australia over a month earlier.
"It's almost impossible to put 80 minutes together at 100 percent," Erasmus said. "We scored 45 points in the first half, and the final score was 66, so we got another 21 points in the second half. Italy are a proud team, and despite being 45 points down, they started running the ball from everywhere, while we also made some changes that we wanted to see, and with that one loses a bit of rhythm. But when you win 66–7, I don't think you can start nitpicking problems in the second half. It wasn't perfect, but it was proper."
The head coach was quick to temper any satisfaction, however, with sterner challenges looming. "That said, we have to play much better than this if we want to be competitive against France and Ireland," he added.
The Boks suffered a late disruption when lock Salmaan Moerat withdrew from the match-day 23 after experiencing back spasms in the warm-up, forcing Lood de Jager into the starting XV and Franco Mostert onto the bench. Erasmus confirmed Moerat had first felt discomfort on Thursday but hoped the issue would not prove serious, adding that no other injuries had emerged from the contest.