Following the Springboks’ 32-14 victory over Italy in Turin, here are our five takeaways from the international match at the home of Juventus.
Top line
It was far from pretty, but the Springboks have continued their unbeaten run to six matches courtesy of four tries to Italy’s one.
Another moment of controversy dominated this match, with Franco Mostert given his marching orders in the first 14 minutes of the game before the deadlock was even broken.
Rassie Erasmus responded by making three first-half substitutions before Handre Pollard finally gave the scorekeepers something to do as he dissected the posts with the Bok head coach making his fourth replacement soon after.
Paolo Garbisi responded with one of his own, but the 14-man Springboks had the final say of the first half as Marco van Staden leg drove through three defenders to grab the first try of the match.
Into the second half, and Garbisi added another three-pointer to his tally and made it three soon after Van Staden was issued with a yellow card, reducing the Springboks to 13 men.
Pollard’s 54th-minute penalty kept the Boks in contact before South Africa extended their lead with Morne van den Berg sniping over the line from close range.
Ange Capuozzo stunningly cut through the Boks’ defence with a sublime line off the shoulder of Garbisi, but that would be the final contribution that the Azzurri would make to the scoreline as late tries from Grant Williams and Ethan Hooker meant that there was no repeat of the 2016 upset and secured a third straight victory over the Italians for South Africa in 2025.
Harshest of red cards, World Rugby’s tweak fails
After the July internationals, World Rugby made the decision to tweak the 20-minute red card process, allowing referees to issue permanent red cards for acts of foul play that are deemed always illegal.
While we navigated the Rugby Championship without a hitch, the Springboks have produced back-to-back examples of the alterations, with Lood de Jager red carded last week and Franco Mostert this week.
There was certainly room for debate with De Jager’s sending off in Paris, but in Turin, the incident was far harsher on the man donning the Bok number five jersey.
In both cases, the first tackle was made by another player before the then-red-carded lock. However, there are clear differences between the two calls.
De Jager clearly made direct contact with Thomas Ramos’ head. Mostert did not do the same with Paolo Garbisi with his effort more shoulder-to-shoulder before his shoulder went into the Italian’s noggin. How the TMO Tual Trainini didn’t see that is the real question. Referee Doleman was right to trust his fourth official, as he and his assistant referees did not have as clear a view as the man behind a screen.
Secondly, Mostert absolutely makes an attempt to wrap with both his arms, despite the right wrapping later than the left. He does so much quicker than De Jager attempted to do so.
This was certainly one of the cases where the Foul Play Review Bunker was needed. Frankly, this was a yellow card incident. Mostert made head contact, but it wasn’t always illegal. Mitigation should have been considered.
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Azzurri brilliance
The 32-14 final scoreline is certainly a bloated one and is not a fair reflection of how the game really played out. Gonzalo Quesada’s charges were simply outstanding in so many facets of the game.
They managed to pin the South African’s back in their own half for much of the first half and forced so many errors from the back-to-back world champions through their breakdown and scrum pressure.
Manuel Zuliani was outrageously brilliant last week against the Wallabies and carried that form to Turin this week, and picked the Boks’ pocket much like Giorgio Chiellini did to visiting attackers on this ground throughout his glorious career with the Old Lady, Juventus.
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Danilo Fischetti and Maro Riccioni caused all kinds of havoc at scrum time, forcing early substitutions from Erasmus in his front-row. There is some questions around the legality of their scrummaging, but in Doleman’s opinion, they were legal and that’s what matters.
New Azzurri captain Nach Brex was superb too. His pullback pass on attack is always a joy to watch, but defensively, he was just as good shutting down the likes of Canan Moodie and Ethan Hooker well.
The Italians were good value today and simply couldn’t keep the tempo and intensity required to produce another upset. But one thing is for damn sure, Quesada has built on the work done by Kieran Crowley, and the Italians are no longer a team that you can simply turn up for and roll over. Those days are gone.
‘Springbok head hunters at it again’ – Franco Mostert controversially shown a permanent red card against Italy
Rassie’s brutal decisions
Park your ego at the door, it’s not welcome in this team. That is the message that every player is given when they rock up to the Springbok squad. Siya Kolisi provided a grand example of that last week when he was replaced in his 100th game at half-time, while Boan Venter, Zachary Porthen and Ben-Jason Dixon learnt that same lesson in Turin.
Since his return in 2018, Erasmus has overseen two Rugby Championships, one British and Irish Lions Series and two World Cup successes, and none of that comes without having a brutal edge and putting the team first.
He made those tough decisions today in the pursuit of victory, giving Dixon the shepherd’s hook for lineout expert Ruan Nortje at the very first opportunity he could after Mostert’s red card. It was the Stormer’s first cap of the year, and he lasted just 13 minutes, and through no fault of his own. The team and result were put first, not the individual. The same was true for rookie props Venter and Porthen, though the former did return later in the game.
Erasmus made these tough calls against France too, and on both occasions, they paid off. Andre Esterhuizen dovetailed between centre and flank wonderfully again, Nortje was at his usual brilliant and energetic best while Gerhard Steenekamp and Wilco Louw got the scrum dominance needed in the latter stages to see the Boks over the line.
Again, the Bomb Squad exploded in the final knockings of the game with Grant Williams and Manie Libbok inspiring in the halfbacks, while Kwagga Smith, who took over the captaincy, produced a box-office cameo that puts him squarely back in the mix to face Ireland. The livewire flanker is a Bomb Squad veteran and showed why he remains one of the most impactful players in the international game.
One can argue the influence these decisions have on the players who got hooked so early, but when weighing it up against being part of just the second Bok matchday 23 to lose to Italy, getting called off the pitch before half-time in a victory is an easy trade-off.
Springboks’ refusal to be beaten
All this plays into the fact that this current team just refuses to be beaten. Even a more inexperienced team has adopted that drive not to lose.
There were so many moments when the Boks looked to be unravelling and getting frustrated by the decisions that weren’t going their way, but they simply found a route back into the game and won the momentum swings.
Johan Grobbelaar’s turnover was a key example of just that, while Damian Willemse repeatedly got Erasmus’ men out of trouble and worked his socks off for game-defining moments and was fittingly named Man of the Match.
It was far from a glamorous win for South Africa, but a win is a win and Erasmus will take that, with Dublin next on his hit list.
READ MORE: Italy v South Africa: Result, match details, stats, line-ups
