Rassie Erasmus Identifies Springboks’ Biggest Concern After Victory Over Italy in Turin
- Rassie Erasmus reflected on the Springboks' 66-7 Nations Championship victory over Italy in Turin on Saturday
- South Africa scored six tries in the first half to build a commanding 45-0 lead before the break
- Erasmus acknowledged the second half was not perfect and signalled what must improve ahead of matches against France and Ireland
PAY ATTENTION: Mark Briefly News as a preferred source, and our content will appear higher in your Google feed!
Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus described Saturday's Nations Championship Northern Series opener against Italy as "proper" but was candid about the need for significant improvement ahead of upcoming clashes with France and Ireland.
South Africa defeated Italy 66-7 at the Allianz Stadium in Turin, running in nine tries in total. The Boks were dominant in the first stanza, scoring six of those tries to lead 45-0 at the interval, before adding three more in the second half while conceding just one try.
Erasmus satisfied but measured
Despite the margin of victory, Erasmus was measured in his assessment.
"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 said.
PAY ATTENTION: You can now search for all your favourite news and topics on Briefly News.
The coach acknowledged that the second half lacked the fluency of the first, attributing part of that to deliberate squad rotation and Italy's response to the scoreline.
"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," Erasmus explained.
He was also philosophical about the nature of maintaining consistency across a full 80 minutes.
"It's almost impossible to put 80 minutes together at 100%," he noted. "Obviously, we're not happy with the second half. We scored 45 points in the first half, and the final score was 66, so we got another 21 points in the second half."
Eyes already on France and Ireland
Erasmus made clear that the Italy result, however comfortable, would not be sufficient preparation for the challenges ahead. "We have to play much better than this if we want to be competitive against France and Ireland," he warned.
He did, however, draw some encouragement from how cohesively the squad performed given the extended break between matches. "It's nice to know that after being a month away from one another, the boys got together and played like that," Erasmus said.
South Africa's Nations Championship Northern Series continues with fixtures against France and Ireland.
PAY ATTENTION: Follow Briefly News on Twitter and never miss the hottest topics! Find us at @brieflyza!
Source: Briefly News
