Duane Vermeulen wants South Africa to improve discipline

South Africa back-row Duane Vermeulen insisted that the Boks need to improve their discipline as they head to the Rugby World Cup campaign in France.

Tries from Siya Kolisi, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Malcolm Marx, Mbongeni Mbonambi and Kwagga Smith powered the Boks to a record 35-7 victory at Twickenham Stadium last weekend on what was their final warm-up game but Vermeulen believes they need to iron out discipline issues as they head to training camp in Corsica this week.

“We made mistakes against New Zealand and there were a few things that didn’t go our way and discipline was one of them,” Vermeulen said.

“We got a yellow card and penalties can make you lose a game, so we have to sharpen up on that. There’s still a lot in the tank. All the focus [now] is on Scotland.

“We wanted to lay a marker going into the World Cup [against the All Blacks] and wanted to show each other what lies inside every person. We played for one another and it was a fantastic result for us."

Despite urging for improvement, the 37-year-old was pleased with the outcome against the All Blacks and is confident that it will keep them in good stead as they look to defend the World title.

“It was our biggest margin over New Zealand so it was a good one and good preparation — but it’s now just the start of the World Cup and hopefully we can go into it with a bit of confidence.

“We wanted to play a full 80 after the last time we met and the guys played their part. Our previous game against New Zealand wasn’t great and our first 20 minutes was our worst performance against New Zealand ever.

“They capitalised on our mistakes. In the week we’d worked on those small things that didn’t go well.

“This is one step in the right direction — there are still one or two little things we can tweak. The coaches are happy and the team’s happy with the performance and hopefully we can build on that.”