Although the back-to-back world champions ran in nine tries during the Test, it wasn’t an entirely convincing performance against the world’s 11th-ranked team.

The biggest positives for South Africa were the standout performances of debutants Boan Venter and Marnus van der Merwe.

Boan Venter goes over for his first Test try ??????

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Loosehead prop Venter, who hails from De Aar, scored the Springboks’ opening try of the match. He became only the second player from this town in the Northern Cape to wear the green and gold, and also the second to score a try on debut. Last year in Bloemfontein, Quan Horn – also from De Aar – made his Springbok debut and crossed the tryline in a historic win over Portugal.

Adding to the story, Venter and Horn are cousins. Their fathers, De Waal Venter and Ian Horn, both played provincial rugby for Griquas in their day. Venter’s mother is the youngest sister of Ian Horn.

Another debutant, former Cheetahs hooker Van der Merwe, also made his Bok bow – and did so in his hometown. The fiery front-rower marked the occasion with a brace of tries and, at times, looked well on track for a hat-trick.

Quan Horn en route to the try line during his Springbok debut against Portugal in Bloemfontein in 2024. Photo: Morgan Piek

The fleet-footed winger Edwill van der Merwe continued to underline South Africa’s depth in the outside backs, also dotting down twice. He now has five tries in just three Tests.

Canan Moodie, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Damian Willemse, and Handré Pollard also got in on the action with tries of their own.

While Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus was pleased to keep the winning streak alive, he admitted the performance was far from polished. With the Rugby Championship kicking off against the Wallabies in August, there’s still work to be done.

“I’m fairly happy if you look across the four games – in each one we scored close to 50 points, except for that first match against Italy,” said Erasmus.

“Overall, when you play a side that’s really physical like Georgia, the game can become quite stop-start. I won’t say they don’t want to play rugby, but they are very disruptive, and that made it hard for us to find a rhythm.

“That’s no excuse for the number of errors we made – we have to take ownership of that. When you’re building squad depth through rotation and giving players chances, especially against teams that also chop and change a lot, you do lose a bit of cohesion.

Two debutants, two tries??????

Marnus van der Merwe gets on the scoresheet ??

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“I was pleased to see the guys settle in the last 25 minutes and finally find some rhythm. It wasn’t an 80-minute performance where we controlled things throughout, but we expected the physicality and disruption, and we got it. We handled it in patches, not always perfectly, but we’ll take the learnings and build from there.”

The Springboks will now enjoy a well-earned three-week break before turning their focus to the Rugby Championship. Erasmus is expected to name his squad for the competition on Thursday.

South Africa open their Rugby Championship campaign on 16 August against Australia at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.

Scorers

Springboks: Tries - Boan Venter, Marnus van der Merwe 2, Canan Moodie, Edwill van der Merwe 2, Damian Willemse, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Handré Pollard Conv. - Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Pollard 4

Georgia - Try: Vano Karkadze Conv. - Luka Matkava Pen. - Matkava

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek cg