Following the Springboks' commanding 80-31 victory over the Barbarians, head coach Rassie Erasmus expressed satisfaction with his team's attacking display but shared strong reservations regarding their defence and a worrying injury to lock Franco Mostert.
“Our discipline wasn't great, and they (the Barbarians) scored tries in quick succession, so yellow cards were not ideal,” said Erasmus.
“But we have to remind ourselves that it's been six or seven months since we’ve played together, and some guys were new in the mix, while we also didn’t know when the DHL Stormers or Vodacom Bulls players would be available at some stage, which are all aspects we have to keep in mind.
Erasmus was pleased with the 12-try onslaught, stating he would not complain about the offensive execution after hitting an 80-point milestone, but openly critiqued their defensive lapses that allowed the Barbarians to cross the line five times. He cited a lack of cohesion after a six-to-seven-month layoff between international fixtures.
“To score 80 points is nice, but the Barbarians were thrown together quite late, and had only three training sessions, which makes them difficult to analyse. They scored four or five great tries, so we need to eliminate those defensive lapses and be better as a unit when we play against England.”
Erasmus admitted he was concerned about Franco Mostert’s injury, which forced the Bok lock to leave the field: “I'm worried about his ankle. He’ll go for scans tomorrow, so hopefully it's not too bad.”
Springbok captain Siya Kolisi echoed Erasmus’ sentiments that there were positives and some big learnings from their opening game of the season.
“I thought a lot of what we wanted to get through, we did, but also, when things didn't work, and we went against the plan, we learned lessons there,” said Kolisi.
“I always have to watch the game again to get a good assessment about things, but I already know some of the mistakes we made and the areas we need to fix. There were opportunities where I thought we could have controlled things better.”