Rassie Erasmus slammed "awful" South Africa, claiming the Springboks were "do***it" during their Rugby Championship defeat by Australia.

The reigning World Cup winners came flying out of the blocks at Ellis Park, racing into an 22-0 lead inside the opening 18 minutes at Ellis Park.

However, the hosts suffered a spectacular collapse inside the final half an hour, during which they conceded 38 unanswered points to see their nine-match winning streak brought to an abrupt halt.

And Erasmus could not hide his frustration with his players.

"This is one of the most embarrassing press conferences I've done in a long time," he told reporters. "Not just because we were awful, but they were very good and credit to them.

"We gave them one or two soft tries, like the intercept. But overall, they were just better than us in most departments. 

"We didn't scrum them, and they beat us in the lineouts. We, as coaches, got it terribly wrong, and we must look firstly at ourselves.

"We know from now until next Saturday, we are going to take a lot of flak. We take the credit when we do well. Now, we must take the flak when we do badly. We are feeling disappointed and bad for our supporters."

"I can try butter it up and bottle it up to sound cool and respectful, but we really were do***it! The effort was maybe there, but the accuracy or precision wasn't."

It's all over at Ellis Park. Well done to the @wallabies on the victory#Springboks #ForeverGreenForeverGold #RSAvAUS pic.twitter.com/3mMFgIxThc

— Springboks (@Springboks) August 16, 2025

South Africa were beaten by Australia on home soil for the first time since 2011, ending a run of eight straight wins.

And Erasmus says he will likely rotate his side for the return fixture between the sides in Cape Town next weekend.

"We already picked next week's team, so the players actually know the team, but we had a chat in the changing room and that will probably change," he added.

"We'll have to rethink it. They tactically outsmarted us and also physically dominated us. The longer the game went on, they were supposed to struggle at altitude, and it just shows what Joe Schmidt is building there.

"He has a strong group of guys who believe in one another and got stronger as the game went on. Next week's team was announced internally, but we will review it tonight.

"The saddest thing is it is five points to them, and we didn't fight back to get the bonus point back, but the Championship is far from over."