Franco Mostert was shown a red card after 11 minutes, but Italy failed to make their extra man count, with Paolo Garbisi guilty of missing kickable penalties.

Tries from Marco van Staden, Morne van Den Berg, Grant Williams, and Ethan Hooker earned SA a comfortable win in the end after they withstood enormous early pressure from Italy, who found one second-half try through Ange Capuozzo.

Italy came in buoyed up by last week’s fightback to record their second-ever win over Australia, and they sensed a chance to do the same against the number-one-ranked side in the world after SA made 11 changes to the side which beat France 32-17 a week ago.

Those chances took a huge boost when early Italian pressure had South Africa on the back foot and the Springboks lost Mostert to a straight red card for dangerous play, but the visitors, who played the second half with 14 men against France, showed enormous resilience once again.

Garbisi, who had a 100% kick rate against Australia, missed the resulting penalty and pulled another wide as Italy failed to get their noses in front.

A rare foray into the Italian 22-metre area led to Handre Pollard converting a penalty before Garbisi finally got off the mark to level but Van Staden drove over for a try on the stroke of halftime and, with Pollard’s conversion, SA went in 10-3 up.

Garbisi put over two penalties after the break to make it a one-point match, before another Pollard penalty and Van Den Berg’s try put SA back in the driving seat.

Capuozzo darted in to find Italy’s only try and briefly keep them in touch, although Garbisi failed to convert. Italy’s spirit was finally broken with tries in the last 10 minutes from Williams and Hooker.

Italy are left with plenty of regrets after failing to make their pressure count and often resorting to ineffective grubber kicks when close to the Springboks’ line, and in the end, SA’s strength proved too much for Gonzalo Quesada’s side.

–Reuters–