{"id":15163,"date":"2025-11-13T07:11:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T05:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/springbok-utility-back-anticipates-strong-all-round-challenge-from-italy\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:28","slug":"springbok-utility-back-anticipates-strong-all-round-challenge-from-italy","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/springbok-utility-back-anticipates-strong-all-round-challenge-from-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"Springbok utility back anticipates strong all-round challenge from Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The Azzurri&#8217;s 26\u201319 win over Australia last weekend underlined the progress they&#8217;ve made under coach Gonzalo Quesada, and Willemse expects a fierce contest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8216;Gaza&#8217; praised Italy&#8217;s defensive structure, attacking width, solid set-piece, and aerial strength, saying those elements make them a difficult team to break down.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;Italy has really built their team all around. They defend and attack well, and they have great players who can pull strings for them, so it&#8217;s going to be a big challenge, especially in the air.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Set-piece-wise, they are a good mauling team and can take it up front as well, and their wings can get up high, so they have a good team throughout,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15066,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-15163","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Springbok utility back, Damian Willemse says Italy will pose a strong all-round challenge\u00a0when the sides meet at the Allianz Stadium in Turin on Saturday","published_date":"2025-11-13 00:00:00","news_description":"Springbok utility back, Damian Willemse says Italy will pose a strong all-round challenge\u00a0when the sides meet at the Allianz Stadium in Turin on Saturday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19519,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15163\/revisions\/19519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=15163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}