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JOHANNESBURG. — South Africa Rugby’s Director of Rugby, Rassie Erasmus, lauded a number of players for superb individual performances in the Springboks’ 35-17 win over Australia in Johannesburg on Saturday, but said the team will have to improve as they build towards the Rugby World Cup.

The Boks scored five tries to two, with Herschel Jantjies (scrumhalf) grabbing two on debut as South Africa recorded a full-house of five Rugby Championship log points at Ellis Park.

Apart from Herschel Jantjies’ brace, Lood de Jager (lock), Sbu Nkosi (right wing) and Cobus Reinach (replacement scrumhalf) also scored tries, while Elton Jantjies (flyhalf) converted all five tries.

“A few guys certainly put their hands up for Rugby World Cup selection and although there was some rustiness and all our combinations weren’t settled, we are still happy with the win,” said Erasmus.

“At times we were frustrated with how things went, and we were also lucky as they had a try disallowed for a forward pass and lost the ball over the line.

“The same happened in some Tests last year — some you win, some you lose, but we’ll take it and say ‘thanks’, but we’re under no illusions that this was far from a world class performance. So the biggest positive from the Test was probably individual performances.

“From a team performance perspective, this isn’t how we want to play, quality wise, and we’re aware of that.

They had our number in the air and we’ll have to look at that, there are a lot of areas we can improve on.”

Erasmus lauded the performances of Herschel Jantjies and Reinach, as well as Frans Steyn, Rynhardt Elstadt, Marcell Coetzee and Francois Louw, all of whom (but Jantjies) joined the squad from overseas and slotted in with ease.

“I think Herschel showed that he is comfortable at this level, if you consider that he only really made his mark at Super Rugby level this year,” said Erasmus.

“Cobus also did very well when he came on. But things can change quickly with injuries and loss of form, so it’s good to have depth. — Sport24