Rassie Erasmus lavishes praise on Herschel Jantjies after impressive debut

South Africa director of rugby Rassie Erasmus lavished praise on scrum-half Herschel Jantjies following his impressive performance in the Rugby Championship opening game against Australia in Johannesburg.

Making his international debut, the 23-year-old came up with a man of the match performance scoring two tries as he helped the Springboks to a 35-17 win.

"You don't want to praise a guy too much, but you can't do other than praise him after the way he played," Erasmus said.

"If you look at where he was in the Currie Cup last year, and to see him in Test match rugby now ... his service, his box-kicks, the technical things and the grit on defence, as well as the way he attacked. It was just awesome.

"Hopefully he can just grow from here. The confidence is certainly high.

"The opposition will just be tougher and tougher as we get closer to the World Cup. But it's a great start from him and he can be very proud."

South Africa currently hold the pole position in the Rugby Championship table and will face New Zealand and Argentina in the final two rounds on 27th July and 10th August respectively.