Cape Town - Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus admits that his side's 50% win ratio for the 2018 season is not acceptable.

The Boks won 7 of their 14 fixtures this year, yet there still seems to be a feeling that they are much-improved and on the right track towards the World Cup in Japan next year. 

In an exclusive interview with SuperSport's Matt Pearce that was aired over the weekend, Erasmus said that he believed the support from the public despite results not always going South Africa's way was probably down to the fact that he had always been open and honest about his plans. 

For large parts of the year Erasmus tinkered with his starting line-up in an effort to find his best combinations with the World Cup in mind, and that may have cost him and the Boks a couple of wins along the way. 

"I know that 50% is not good enough," Erasmus told Pearce. 

"I think because we've been honest and explained to the people what we want to do (they have been supportive).

"When we went to Washington to play Wales we knew that if we went with our strongest side we would have no chance against England.

"The first thing was to beat England, who were ranked higher than us. After winning the first two Test matches we said we were going to make some bold calls and we knew that we would have a chance of losing the Test match. We learnt a lot about players there.

"We lost against Australia and Argentina away, which is not acceptable, but we beat New Zealand.

"50% is not good enough, but in the context of building the squad and how we planned, and the fact that we were honest with the people … I think that's why they understand."