Rassie Erasmus wants improvement from South Africa despite win over Australia

South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus urged the team to continue improving despite a 23-12 win over Australia in the fifth round Rugby Championship clash against Australia at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium last weekend.

The Boks got off to a terrific start with Aphiwe Dyantyi and Faf de Klerk scoring tries in the first quarter but Erasmus pointed out the missed chances which they failed to capitalise. Nevertheless he also credited the resilience showed by South Africa that saw them beat New Zealand and Australia in the previous two rounds.

“I think tonight [on Saturday] we created more chances than we did against New Zealand and if we had converted some of those the game would have gone very differently,” said Erasmus after the match.

“If we’d taken them we could have given them a hiding.

"In the past couple of months when we made changes, we lost matches so to make eight changes and beat Australia is something to celebrate and before we start to look at where we need to improve, we should probably enjoy the victory.”

By the end of the half-time, South Africa had a 20-12 lead but they did not let Wallabies score a point in the second half despite a sin-bin to Dyantyi in the 64th minute and Erasmus lauded the defence from the hosts.

“In the second half we didn’t play well but we showed a lot of character once again,” added Erasmus.

“Overall I think the guys are getting the hang of the defensive system but it’s not something that you can get right through talking about it or on the training ground. It’s something you have to make mistakes trying, and learn from those mistakes.”

The win has sealed the second place for Erasmus' men in the table as they now have 14 points from five games which is six more than third placed Argentina.