Plenty of work to do despite South Africa's thrilling win, says John Smit

South Africa captain John Smit accepted there was plenty for his side still to work on after their enthralling 44-31 Tri Nations victory over Australia in Pretoria. The Springboks ended a run of four defeats to clinch a first win in the competition and climb to second in the standings behind already-crowned champions New Zealand.

Smit was relieved to have finally turned the corner, but conceded it would be difficult to defend the World Cup next year on the same form.

"The second half was a little bit closer to what we want," he said. "But after the start we had, we know we definitely need to tighten up - that really complicated matters. We wanted a lot more accuracy and it came after the first 15 minutes, but that is not the type of rugby that will win you the World Cup.'' The start he was referring to was the Wallabies snatching a 14-0 lead inside the first five minutes through Will Genia and James O'Connor tries, and retaining that margin after ten minutes.

"Coming back from being 14-0 down and the game had barely started is something we can be proud of, but it's obviously not something we wanted to do," Smit said. "I told the guys that we still had 70 minutes left and there was plenty of time to win this game.

"We held on to the ball more, kept it in hand and got the set-pieces working. In the four weeks since we got back (from Australia and New Zealand], we worked on correcting the errors that had crept into our game and got back to basics."

By the 50th minute, Francois Steyn touched down to put the hosts into the lead at 34-31. Further points by Steyn and a try from JP Pietersen put the match beyond Australia's reach.

Smit, who saw his 100th cap spoiled by the All Blacks seven days earlier when the Springboks were beaten in Johannesburg, also heaped praise on his deputy Victor Matfield after he marked his own century appearance with a win.

"The only time we would have known it was an occasion was when we saw the 100 on his jersey," he added. ''That's the type of guy Victor is.''