Morne van den Berg, named Player of the Match in the Springboks' 66-7 Nations Championship Northern Series opener against Italy in Turin, says the result was essential for building momentum but that the squad knows there is significant work ahead before Friday's clash against France in Paris.
The Boks led 45-0 at half-time before Italy applied pressure in the second half — a period Van den Berg singled out as the area most in need of attention when they review the footage this week.
"There's a lot to improve on in our game, which is actually quite exciting," Van den Berg said. "We'll study the video and see exactly where we can improve, but credit to Italy for putting us under pressure in the second half. They are an incredible team and nation and we expected that, but that's perhaps where we could have been better."
Van den Berg, who scored one of the Boks' nine tries on the night, acknowledged the significance of the result in the context of the inaugural competition. "It was especially important to get our game and the things we worked on during the week right. Obviously it was important for us to get momentum going into next week's game, so the result was very important."
The squad travelled from Turin to Paris on Saturday evening and was at their French base by that night. The match against France kicks off at 22h10 SA time on Friday and will be broadcast live on SuperSport, with Ireland in Dublin to follow on 21 November before Finals Weekend in London closes out the series on the weekend of 27 to 29 November.