Rassie Erasmus has described the Springboks' 66-7 demolition of Italy in Turin as satisfying while making clear the team must lift significantly for the upcoming Nations Championship Northern Series matches against France and Ireland.
The Boks led 45-0 at halftime, scoring six first-half tries before adding three more after the break and conceding only Italy's single score of the night. Erasmus was candid that the second half was not at the level he expects, though he stopped short of making it a major concern given the margin.
"It's almost impossible to put 80 minutes together at 100%," he said. "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."
He was more pointed about what lies ahead: "We have to play much better than this if we want to be competitive against France and Ireland."
The only pre-match disruption came when Salmaan Moerat withdrew with back spasms during the warm-up. Lood de Jager started in his place with Franco Mostert moving onto the bench. Erasmus confirmed Moerat had shown back spasms on Thursday but appeared to have recovered sufficiently before the problem flared again at the Allianz Stadium, and indicated no other serious injuries emerged from the game.
On discipline, Erasmus noted the Boks conceded just one penalty in the first half and roughly five penalties and five turnovers across the full 80 minutes, though he acknowledged the second half was "a little soft" in that regard.
Asked about the team's cohesion, Erasmus pointed to the continuity built over eight years, with newer inclusions such as Ethan Hooker, Morne van den Berg, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Ruan Nortje, Cameron Hanekom, Jan-Hendrik Wessels and the returning Thomas du Toit being absorbed into an established system.
The squad departed for Paris on Saturday evening ahead of Friday's Test against France at the Stade de France.