Coach Rassie Erasmus says his Springboks are not running in a straight line into the kraal.
They all got there in the end on Sunday, beating Scotland 32-15 at Murrayfield to kick off their European tour with a bang and reclaim the world’s top ranking spot from Ireland.
The Springboks won the match without conceding a try and scored four of their own in the process.
But expectation from the country’s fans and the standard the team sets for itself is so high that Sunday’s post-match press conference had the taste of defeat to it.
Erasmus explains: “We were nervous the whole week [leading up to the match].
“If you make 11 changes to a side, ‘we said to the players we don’t expect them to immediately gel’. It won’t always happen like that.
“But that’s certainly something we want to get into the team, where our systems and communications are always up to scratch [no matter who starts the game]. We always knew we had good cover on the bench.
“We can be really proud of playing against [Scotland playmaker] Finn Russell two games and not giving a try away. That’s really hard to do.
“But certainly not a performance we’re very proud of what we put out there...”
Asked to elaborate on why they’re not proud of the performance, Erasmus adds: “Next week [against England] Damian [de Allende] and Jesse [Kriel] might play again.
“But we wanna know if one of those guys go down, the other guys can slot in seamlessly. It has nothing to do with the effort – it’s just the in syncness.”
Captain-on-the-day Eben Etzebeth agrees, saying: “They [Scotland] stood up to us in terms of physicality, it was a good battle. We probably weren’t at our best, but showed quality in the end to make the scoreboard like that.”
The Boks next face England on Saturday.
The Springboks are back on top of the rankings after tonight's win 📈🔝
Eben Etzebeth reacts after receiving the Player of the Match award 🗣️#AutumnNationsSeries pic.twitter.com/ozZdaKnLUO