Springboks thump Italy 66-7 in Nations Championship: Three talking points
· Citizen
The Springboks produced a dominant performance first up to get their Nations Championship end-of-year-tour off to a top start, powering to a 66-7 win over Italy at the Allianz Stadium in Turin on Saturday afternoon.
It was a monster first half performance from the Boks that saw them run in six unanswered tries to lead 45-0 at the break, before an improved performance from the hosts, along with a few mistakes from the visitors, limited them to just three more tries in the second half.
Visit extract-html.com for more information.
The result, however, solidifies the Boks’ place at the top of the South section log, ahead of the All Blacks’ match against Scotland later Saturday.
Here are three talking points from the match in Turin.
Maul power and aerial dominance
Italy initially stood up to the Springboks’ set piece well, as they competed well in the first few scrums and managed to stop the first three or four Bok lineout mauls.
But eventually the Boks started firing and a big hit at a scrum led to a free kick that the Boks attacked from and eventually scored a try from, which saw the tide turn.
The Boks’ lineout and maul also started rumbling as hooker Malcolm Marx was driven over twice, either side of captain Siya Kolisi also being mauled over, all in the first half, while Paul de Villiers dotted down off the back of a maul in the second half.
Italy did earn a surprise scrum penalty after a big effort from their pack at the start of the second half, but the Boks soon hit back and normal service resumed as the bomb squad came on and dominated, earning a few scrum penalties themselves.
The Boks’ aerial dominance in the match was also impressive, with some brilliant up-and-unders put up by scrumhalf Morné van den Berg.
Wings Ethan Hooker and Kurt-Lee Arendse were a menace throughout, either winning the ball back or causing big problems for Italy every time they competed.
The Sacha FM first half show
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu once again showed why he is considered a maverick with an action packed first half performance.
He knocked over an easy penalty early on and then scored a stunning solo try, throwing a dummy, stepping through and sprinting away to score in the corner before landing the tricky conversion from touch.
In the end, he contributed 24 points, landing all nine of his kicks at goal, eight of them conversions to go along with his try.
His other play was also top notch, as he slung out a couple of superb skip passes, one that almost ended in a try to wing Ethan Hooker, and his kicking was great, with him nailing a wonderful 50-22 in the first half and he kicked an impressive banana clearance.
But as always, he wasn’t perfect, with two poor knock-ons at the end of first half and start of the second half, while he also conceded a penalty and went off for a head knock assessment, before returning and seeing out the game.
Ruthless first half, scrappy second
A lot had been said in the build up about the Springboks’ need to pick up a big bonus point and points difference win in this match, with the All Blacks breathing down their neck on the South section Nations Championship log.
The Bok players and coaches played that down in the week, preferring to say their focus was on earning a win before looking at the rest, but in the end they did the job they needed to by clinching a huge result.
But they might be a bit disappointed that they didn’t cash in more than they did after a ruthless first half performance. They delivered a scrappy second half showing, blighted by a number of errors, but also by some fight from the hosts.
After surprisingly choosing to pop over a penalty after earning an early penalty in Italy’s 22m area in front, the Boks ran in six first half tries, but a scrappy second half then meant the Boks could only add three more tries, the last after the fulltime hooter.
Italy also managed to score a converted try in the second half.