‘We have plenty to work on,’ says Boks’ Rassie after Barbarians rout

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said that his team wouldn’t be getting carried away after their 54-7 rout of the Barbarians in their season opener over the past weekend and that they still have plenty to work on heading into the rest of their 2025 campaign.

The Boks produced a strong showing first up to blow away the famed invitational team in poor weather conditions in Cape Town, but it wasn’t a ruthless display, with them making a number of mistakes over the match.

But Erasmus admitted it was a satisfactory result to start the season, with various players getting useful game time under their belts, while a few newcomers and inexperienced players got an important run for the national side.

“I am happy about the win, but there are lots for us to work on. To keep them only to seven points and us getting to the score we did, we are happy with that,” said Erasmus.

“Some guys got a hit-out today who haven’t played for a while. Other guys do not have a lot of caps, so we are glad we came through it.

“For the Barbarians, this was probably the worst conditions to play in. We had to keep some structure, so overall it was satisfying, and now the Test matches start.”

Incoming series

The Boks now look ahead to their three match incoming series, two games against Italy in Pretoria and Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) over the next two weeks, followed by a one-off Test against Georgia, before they break for a few weeks ahead of the Rugby Championship.

Erasmus believes that playing in better weather conditions would see an improvement in their attacking game, which is what they will be working on over the next three weeks.

“We won’t get carried away with a game like this (against the Baabaas). We know it’s a festival game and we are playing at home against a team that only practiced a few times together,” explained Erasmus.

“Italy gave Namibia 70 points today (Saturday). I know Namibia is not a first-tier nation, but we know that Italy have improved greatly. There are obviously certain things we can improve. We want to get better and that will be the focus of the next two matches, while the one against Georgia will also be a grind.

“If the weather was dry, we might have capitalised and executed on the line-breaks we had better than we did.

“We maybe (overplayed) a bit in the first half, but we chatted about that at halftime and we toned it down a bit in the second half. It was a good experience playing in this (wet) weather and we will use that experience if we get it again.”