Clinical Springboks put Italy to the sword in Turin
· The South African
A near-perfect first-half performance from South Africa paved the way for a resounding Nations Championship victory over Italy in Turin on Saturday.
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The Springboks scored 45 unanswered points in the opening 40 minutes, before a somewhat messy second stanza saw them run out 66-7 winners.
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Retained top spot
In doing so, the Springboks remained top of the Southern Hemisphere standings, and also kept their No 1 World Rugby ranking.
The Springboks scored nine tries through hooker Malcolm Marx (2), flyhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, scrumhalf Morne van den Berg, flank Siya Kolisi, fullback Damian Willemse, wing Ethan Hooker and replacements, front-rower Wilco Louw and loose forward Paul de Villiers.
Feinberg-Mngomezulu added all nine conversions as well as a penalty for a personal haul of 26 points.
Italy replied with a try by lock Federico Ruzza and a conversion by replacement back Tommaso Allan.
The victory was South Africa’s 19th in 20 Tests against Italy. Their lone defeat came in 2016 in Florence.
The Springboks will next face France at the Stade de France in Paris on Friday, 13 November at 22:10 (SA time).
Teams
Italy15 Mirko Belloni, 14 Ange Capuozzo, 13 Paolo Odogwu, 12 Leonardo Marin, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Alessandro Fusco, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Samuele Locatelli, 6 Alessandro Ortombina, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolò Cannone, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera (captain), 1 Muhamed Hasa
Replacements: 16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Ion Neculai, 19 Enoch Opoku Gyamfi, 20 Ross Vintcent, 21 Manuel Zuliani, 22 Stephen Varney, 23 Tommaso Allan
South Africa15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Ethan Hooker, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Morne van den Berg, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Lood de Jager, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nche
Replacements: 16 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Cameron Hanekom, 21 Paul de Villiers, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Manie Libbok
Referee: Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: James Doleman (New Zealand), Sam Grove-White (Scotland)
TMO: Brett Cronan (Australia)