Rassie Erasmus has acknowledged the 66-7 demolition of Italy in Turin as 'satisfying' while making clear the Springboks must lift considerably for their Nations Championship Northern Series clashes against France and Ireland.
The Boks led 45-0 at halftime — scoring six tries in a dominant first-half display — before adding three more after the break and conceding just one try. Erasmus was candid about the drop-off in the second period, attributing it partly to the squad rotation he wanted to run through rather than any structural breakdown.
'It's almost impossible to put 80 minutes together at 100%,' he said. 'Italy started running the ball from everywhere despite being 45 points down, and with the changes we made you lose a bit of rhythm. But when you win 66-7, I don't think you can start nitpicking. It wasn't perfect, but it was proper.'
The one sour note before kick-off was Salmaan Moerat's withdrawal from the match-23 with back spasms suffered during the warm-up. Lood de Jager started in his place with Franco Mostert moving onto the bench. Erasmus confirmed Moerat had experienced an initial spasm on Thursday but appeared to have recovered sufficiently before the problem recurred. 'Hopefully it's not too serious. He's the only casualty we have 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 — figures he considered acceptable, if softer than ideal in the second stanza.
Erasmus pointed to the continuity built over eight years together as central to the team's cohesion, while also highlighting the integration of newer faces. 'We're slowly bringing in guys like Ethan Hooker, Morne van den Berg, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Ruan Nortje, Cameron Hanekom, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, and Thomas du Toit is back with us too. When everybody is calm and understands the system, it's satisfying.'
The squad departed for Paris on Saturday evening ahead of Friday's Test against France at the Stade de France.