South Africa rout injury-hit Italy 66-7 in Turin with nine tries in Nations Championship

Springboks rout a depleted Italy

South Africa beat Italy 66-7 on Saturday, 7 November, at the Allianz Stadium in Turin in the Nations Championship. The world champions scored nine tries, all converted, and led 45-0 at half-time. Italy was missing 16 injured players, among them captain Michele Lamaro, so Giacomo Nicotera led the side. Rassie Erasmus named an almost full-strength team built on the Greatest Rivalry series win over New Zealand two months earlier. The scoreline is Italy's heaviest home defeat in its history and its fifth straight loss.

Outhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was the central figure, kicking every conversion and finishing with 26 points, his third-best haul in tests according to AP. Attendance was 31,500. Crowd support for Italy stayed loud even as the scoreboard grew, a point several Italian outlets noted.

South Africa66

Italy7

South Africa

66 points

Italy

7 points

Data from the article text

How the first half unfolded

South Africa were in control from the opening minutes. Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked a penalty in the fifth minute and scored the first try of the match in the ninth, after a dummy split the Italian defence. Driving lineouts produced tries for Morne van den Berg and Malcolm Marx, while Siya Kolisi and Damian Willemse also crossed. Marx added a second try from a maul, and prop Muhamed Hasa was shown a yellow card around the 30th minute. Italy gained only 60 metres in the first half and made the Springboks complete only 25 tackles, according to AP, while its own kicking wasted what possession it had.

Second half and Italy's try

South Africa sent on its bench of forwards around the 46th minute, and Wilco Louw scored soon after the restart following a run by Jesse Kriel. Italy's replacement halves, Stephen Varney and Tommaso Allan, came on around the hour and the home side played noticeably better. Federico Ruzza scored Italy's first points in the 62nd minute, converted by Allan, after Varney's cut-out pass. Paul de Villiers and Ethan Hooker added late tries for South Africa, with Hooker scoring on the stroke of full-time.

Reactions and next fixtures

Coach Gonzalo Quesada admitted the gap was obvious.

“In the first half we were totally dominated. They are the strongest in the world.”

Quesada said some of his side's unforced errors were the main source of his disappointment and asked his players not to be too hard on themselves. Nicotera said the team wanted to move on quickly.

“It was a heavy defeat, but we are an ambitious team and we want to turn the page quickly.”

Italy's next match is against Argentina on Saturday, 14 November, at 12:40 at the Stadio Ferraris in Genoa. South Africa face France in Paris on Friday, 13 November, and then finish their tour in Ireland. After four matches South Africa are unbeaten at 4-0 in the championship and hold the points differential lead over New Zealand, while Italy stands at 0-4 with Argentina and Fiji still to come.