Boks embracing the future
Springbok captain Jean de Villiers said they took an important step towards building depth for the future on Saturday.
The 31-8 victory over the Wallabies at Loftus Versfeld saw Heyneke Meyer blood debutants Jaco Taute and Elton Jantjies and introduce Johan Goosen as starting flyhalf in place of Morne Steyn.
Goosen and Taute were solid in a Springbok backline that fired on all cylinders and Jantjies looked comfortable during his five minutes on the pitch.
De Villiers said the Test rookies proved if you are good enough you are old enough.
"Certainly the guys that came in played really well, all the guys involved played really well, but what we are doing now, is building good depth in South Africa, we are managing to get good depth in all positions," De Villiers said.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer had special praise for Cheetahs flyhalf Goosen, who Meyer revealed struggled with an ankle injury that affected his goal-kicking.
"He is an exciting prospect, I would have liked him to score that try there at the beginning, he showed a lot of pace," he said.
"But it will take time, you can't just pick guys and think they're going to do brilliant things, but I thought he was superb.
"Especially after 10 minutes, his ankle really hurt and he said he wanted to see if he can go through, he showed a lot of character and I think he is on the right track."
De Villiers also lauded veteran wing Bryan Habana, whose hat-trick saw him break Breyton Paulse’s record of seven career tries against Australia.
"That's great for him, he's been playing outstanding rugby all year, and he is someone that will always be criticised if he doesn't make that magic that he did again today," he said.
Meyer was content with the performance, which saw South Africa snap a five-match losing streak to the Wallabies, and said that there remains plenty of room for improvement.
"We haven't beaten the Aussies for quite some time and I'm very proud of this great captain and young team," Meyer said.
"But I am still not happy with the performance and I've always said I have really high standards.
"Three tries were centimetres away, but we have to convert that into points."
