Rassie Erasmus turned his attention to Argentina and New Zealand after the Springboks recorded their third successive Nations Championship win, a 43-0 shutout of Wales at Kings Park on Saturday.
The head coach confirmed a split-squad strategy for the coming weeks. Twenty-six players will head to South America for the Pumas assignment whilst a group of 15 or 16 remain behind with coaching staff to begin preparations for the Rugby Championship encounters with New Zealand in August and September.
"To get 43 points and to keep them to nil – we're satisfied with that," Erasmus said. "Forty-three-nil was definitely better than last week – certainly defensively – but it's easier to defend on a wet field like that – and we had no injuries, so that's good."
The conditions at Kings Park proved deceptively difficult. Erasmus noted the greasy surface contributed to a succession of handling errors that prevented the Boks from playing an expansive game. "We saw world-class players make a few knocks-on in this game. The field is really slippery, and you could feel it in the warm-up – that it was really greasy," he said. "It was tough to play an expansive, pretty game in weather like that against a team that really wanted to defend."
Set-piece dominance and defensive improvement
Despite the handling issues, Erasmus highlighted significant progress in key areas. The Springboks did not lose a lineout and corrected scrum deficiencies from the previous week's Scotland fixture. "Our maul stopping and mauling itself was good. It was something that we wanted to get right so we had a lot of fixes that we got right," he said.
Defensive organisation also improved markedly. The Boks have now kept Wales scoreless in consecutive meetings following November's 73-0 victory in Cardiff. "In this game we learnt that our defence was better than last week – we worked really hard on that – and then our set piece was really solid," Erasmus said.
The rotation policy continued with Vusi Moyo becoming the youngest flyhalf in Springbok history at 20 years and 27 days. Erasmus acknowledged the challenge of maintaining cohesion whilst building depth. "I think we've got a little bit better in every game of the Nations Championship but as we've been rotating it does take cohesion away," he said.
The split-squad approach will test that depth further. With the Boks atop the Southern Hemisphere standings before the tournament heads north later this year, Erasmus faces the challenge of keeping two groups match-ready across different hemispheres and competitions. The Argentina fixture offers the touring squad a chance to stake claims whilst those remaining will begin sharpening tactical plans for the Rugby Championship's marquee rivalry.