After beating Argentina 38-21 in Durban at the weekend, the coach said progress had been made, especially in developing depth at first five-eighths and wing.
South Africa used 34 players during the tournament and had answered some questions about the depth available.
"Some players got some experience, but that wasn't the main aim – which was to win the Rugby Championship. We fell short on that. But there were some positives to take out of it," he said.
"We are in a better position now in terms of learning about certain positions than when we started.
"There was always this big issue around flyhalf and whether Damian [Willemse] could play there, and hats off to Frans [Steyn] today. In a very short space of time he had to slot in and he will just get better in terms of that."
On the wing development, he said, "Kurt-Lee [Arendse] and Canan [Moodie] came through, and now, Cheslin [Kolbe] has to perform if he wants to get back in. But we know he is quality, and we look forward to welcoming him back."
South Africa are to play Ireland on November 5, France on November 12, Italy on November 19 and England on November 26.
"We're not where we want to be yet. We need consistency, and we'll probably get a pretty good idea on our end of year tour. We play No1 [Ireland] and No2 [France] teams in the world, and we have a South Africa A side, and it will be a challenging tour. But, it will give us nice answers as to where we are," he said.