South Africa boss Erasmus expecting step up for Rugby Championship after win over Georgia

South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus is expecting a “step up” in quality for the Rugby Championships following their four-match series this summer.

The Springboks overwhelmed Georgia 55-10 in their final Test of the summer ahead of the Rugby Championships.

Captain Siya Kolisi played his first match of the year after battling various injuries, while debutants Boan Venter and Marnus van der Merwe scored tries.

Handre Pollard, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Edwill van der Merwe, Damian Willemse and Canan Moodie also crossed for the Springboks, who went behind early on to Vano Karkadze's score.

South Africa previously recorded back-to-back wins over Italy and a 54-7 victory against the Barbarians in a non-Test at the end of June.

Erasmus was glad to be able to rotate his side and build stronger squad depth, making 41 changes between the four matches, but revealed he will be more consistent with his team selections for the upcoming competition.

“We’re fairly happy if you look over the four games,” said Erasmus, whose team face Australia on August 16.

Highlights: Relive the action from the Lowveld where the Boks scored nine tries to one against a plucky Georgian team #Springboks #ForeverGreenForeverGold #RSAvGEO
— Springboks (@Springboks) July 19, 2025

“We scored close to 50 points in each match and apart from the first Italy Test, defended pretty well.

“Georgia were physical and disruptive but that’s not an excuse for us making so many errors, but I guess we must understand that if we chop and change teams like we have as we’re building squad depth, you’ll lose rhythm.

“We’ll name 36 guys on Tuesday for the Australia series and within that squad there’ll be one or two guys that we experiment with, but the bulk of that squad will be experienced players who are suited to the way we want to play.

“The nice thing is that we’ve got a group of 48 players or so that we’ve used this year and there’s quite a couple that we’d also like to give opportunities to, like Jaden [Hendrikse], Jordan [Hendrikse], Quan Horn, Renzo [du Plessis].

“But this was a series where we wanted to experiment a little bit so getting the scorelines we did is pretty satisfying. But the Rugby Championship is definitely a step up.”