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Innovation to the fore as 14-man Boks whitewash Italy

football12 July 2025 17:38| © SuperSport
By:Gavin Rich
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You could easily have called it Springbok innovation day as the world champions pulled out a full box of tricks from the opening whistle en route to their 45-0 series- clinching victory over Italy at a raucous, seething Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha on Saturday.

It is doubtful that going down to 14 men, and at one stage it was 13, was part of the Bok plan.

The red card shown to No 8 Japser Wiese with not much more than a quarter of the game gone for a head-butt is a concern for the Boks as they look ahead towards the Castle Lager Rugby Championship.

That is a position that is an area of strength in South African rugby, but less so now that so many of them are injured.

The loss of Wiese, and then the 10 minute absence of Wilco Louw when he was carded early in the second half, did militate against the Boks achieving the complete blowout score some might have been expecting.

But then expecting more than a synopsis of seven tries to nil, and whitewashing a team that finished the first test with good momentum, is maybe a bit greedy and an illustration of just how high the Bok standards are set.

One of the most impressive things about the Boks in this game was how they shrugged off the loss of Wiese and stuck to their plan, which was to draw the Italians out of their comfort zone through exploiting their talent and pace out wide with the expansive attacking game that they execute so well when Manie Libbok is at No 10 and he has Willie le Roux, playing his 100th game in a winning cause, on the field with him.

When Le Roux was replaced in the second half he’d done his job and there was an opportunity for the prodigiously talented Sacha Feinberg-Mngomzeulu to bring more of the same from fullback.

There had been a hint from coach Rassie Erasmus that he might bring Feinberg-Mngomezulu on at inside centre, but it was Ethan Hooker who came on for Canan Moodie, who had a good game in his return to the No 13 jersey and capped it with a fine try that showed off both his pace and his physical strength.

RASSIE’S PLOYS THE TALKING POINT

It was though a day where Erasmus’s latest innovations were the big talking point.

It started with a short kick-off at the start of the game in what was clearly a deliberate ploy by the Boks to start off the game with an opportunity to scrum Italy.

It was followed by what you could call two midfield lineout drives, with Ruan Nortje being lifted as if in a lineout when being set up with the ball in general play and then the rest of the forward driving through like it is a lineout maul.

The first one led to a Canan Moodie try, and the second one hit bulls eye too, with Malcolm Marx dotting down a driving maul that was set about 10 metres from the Italy line at a stage of the second half when they were down to 13 men.

The first ploy of setting up a scrum to start the game didn’t quite work out as Italy managed to get a technical free kick, but the Boks were quickly into their stride as Wiese, who was in barnstorming mood before his disciplinary lapse, barrelled his way through.

He didn’t make the line, and the next Bok scrum conceded a penalty, but from the lofty perch of the stadium press box it was clear that this was going to be a day when Italy’s defensive system was going to find itself stretched.

It would have been more so if they’d stayed at 15 men, and in the initial stages the Boks, with centurion Le Roux knocking on with one of his early touches, looked like they might be too caught up in their own desire to play high tempo and the electric atmosphere generated by a crowd that clearly demonstrated it’s appetite for rugby, something that this part of the world is starved of.

Someone starved of rugby recently was scrumhalf Grant Williams, who marked his return to the field with a zippy performance.

He was rewarded with the first try in the eighth minute off a long-range attack that summed up the Boks’ attitude.

Predictably a deft play from Libbok featured in a move that started inside the South African 22 and then Edwill van der Merwe, playing his second international game, made the line break.

Fellow wing Makazole Mapimpi, such a popular figure at a ground where he first made his name with the Southern Kings, was up with Van der Merwe and then when he was challenged it was inside to Williams.

The No 9 has the pace of a wing and he showed it by being on hand to complete that try.

GOT THE BREAKDOWN RIGHT

There were several areas the Boks needed to get right and one of them was the breakdowns, where they ticked a box with the several breakdown penalties they were awarded by referee Andrew Brace.

Clearly the talks with the refereeing team worked this week, but there was also a much clearer intent from the Boks in that area of the game.

The scrums were good in Pretoria and not always as convincing here, with Erasmus forced to make the big call quite a while before halftime by sending on Ox Nche to replace the front row swinger ‘Thomas du Toit’.

Ironically the call, which was already telegraphed by Nche warming up, came straight after perhaps the Boks’ most devastating scrum of the game.

The second Bok try featured a good pass from Le Roux after an attacking scrum and resulted in Van der Merwe scoring his first of two tries.

Van der Merwe’s second try also featured Le Roux, as the wing chased a well placed kick from the fullback and Italy made the error that allowed the wing to kick it through and score.

Together with Moodie’s try that made it 24-0 at the break, which wasn’t a dissimilar advantage to the one they enjoyed at halftime at Loftus.

But the Boks, the period when Louw was off aside, and even then they scored Marx’s try (admittedly then Italy were down to 14 men after a card of their own), didn’t release their foot off the pedal this time.

More importantly, Italy were unable to land a blow, and never looked likely to do so.

SCORES

South Africa 45 - Tries: Grant Williams, Edwill van der Merwe 2, Canan Moodie, Malcolm Marx, Makazole Mapimpi and Jan-Hendrik Wessels; Conversions: Manie Libbok 5.

Italy 0.

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